"Do you go to church?" My coworker asked after seeing me pray before my meal.
"Yeah, I try to, whenever I go to Seoul."
"Wow... I bet you're gonna go to heaven."
That caught me off guard. "........... huh?"
"So does that mean I'm going to hell? Since I don't believe in God?"
I didn't answer him. I just shrugged and kept on eating. But now that whole scenario is eating me up inside... why didn't I answer him? It's not like I didn't know the answer. I've known it for as long as I've been going to church.. which is my whole 20 years of life. I claim to be a follower of Christ... but what kind of follower am I if I were to only embrace the happy, flowery parts of Christianity? How could I call myself a Christian if I only accept the parts of God that I want to accept-- the happy, mushy gushy, God-loves-you-and-forgives-you God, the God who pursues after you relentlessly, the God who waits for you like a groom waits anxiously for his bride, the God of comfort and rest; and I reject the parts of God that I want to reject-- the God of fearsome anger, the God of destruction, the God of wrath?
Is it better to mislead people and trick them into believing that our God is a singly-faceted God who is only about happiness and bubbles and warm tingly feelings, just so that it would be easier for people to accept Him? And then later after we've lured them into our "trap", then do we spring the rest of the truth on them-- the uncomfortable, burdensome truth? Who am I to put God in a box, where I get to pick and choose which parts of God I want to share with others and which parts I want to hide from them?
I never want to be the type of Christian who goes around condemning people saying, "You're going to hell" right in their faces. But at the same time, I don't want to be the type of ignorant Christian who claims to believe God is limitless and yet tries to limit Him. I don't want to be the type of Christian who is just too in denial to accept not only the good from God, but also the bad that He allows.....
Job 2:10 - "... Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"
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i'm such a coward
to me, if God exists, he did not write the Bible or at least it's been corrupted by Man over the couple millenniums. everything starts with good and honest intentions but eventually, evil people will sneak into power and change things for their own personal gain. might be a bigger leap of faith to believe in the Bible rather than God. I'd sooner believe in God than believe in the Bible.
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