Letter To A Friend

This letter is to a brother, a friend, those who are important to me. This letter is written because I've noticed something in you. You seem a bit distraught...a bit distant. You're struggling right now. Life is hard and it's been beating down on you lately. I can honestly say I know how you feel. Not a week goes by that I don't doubt myself.
Still, I want you to know that I've noticed how you feel. I want you to know that your life is important. Your presence is felt...and it matters. I'm praying for you. And if that doesn't matter to you, that's okay. Doubt and bitterness are a part of life, too. Cherry-coating things doesn't help. Shit happens and sometimes life sucks. Sometimes nothing anyone can say will make you feel better. But you...well, I know you. You can rise above. You can choose to stay positive. You don't have to believe you're worth it—I can believe that for you right now. You should know, though, that you are worth it. You're worth the life you live. Rise above the things that bring you down. Why? I can't answer that for you. But I can stand by your side and say that there are good days and bad days. We live for the good days and we embrace them. Keep moving forward. The road ahead is open and waiting for you. I'll end with a line from a great song by Matt Maher called "Hold Us Together"—"[Love] won't fix your life in five easy steps...but it's all you need / And I'll be my brother's keeper, so the whole world will know that we're not alone / This is the first day of the rest of your life."

Why Do You Believe?

I had a good conversation with a family member recently. They talked about taking a Bible class at church, and how difficult it was to understand the Old Testament. Rules. Exile. Punishment. Death. More rules. They were really struggling with the God of the Old Testament and how to make sense of their faith in light of what they were reading and studying. This family member came to three conclusions, and didn't really like any of those three:

• Take the Bible very literally, in which case they didn't want to follow a God like the one of the Old Testament
• God must have wrongly-predicted the actions of his creation, thus making God fallible
• Assume the Bible is written by imperfect humans, who—though inspired by God—misinterpreted many things that God said to them

These are some hard conclusions to arrive at. I have thought about these conclusions and agree with this family member. The Old Testament is an extremely difficult set of narratives to accept. So, then, what are we left with? Unbelief? Doubt? A pointless faith?

Why do we continue to believe?

I can only speak for myself. In a world that tempts my doubt, I continue to believe because I want to believe in a God who is a champion for the hopeless. God, and the Church, are meant to be a shining light in the darkest of dark places. God is a haven for those rejected by the world. For those who are unloved and unaccepted, God accepts. At least that's what the Bible teaches. Jesus was a defender for the weak, poor and oppressed. The world is full of these people. Those who don't like the way they look; those who can't love themselves; those whose past sins continue to pour guilt upon them; those who don't feel accepted by any one. God exists for those people most of all. And when you identify with those people, you're likely to find God. And when you find God, the confusing words of the Old Testament don't seem to matter.

So why do you believe? Responses welcome...