The things you find...

I don't know what got into me, but I started cleaning up my office today. All of the sudden I was rearranging books on the bookshelf to make room for new ones that have come to live there, cleaning out old stacks of papers that haven't been touched for too long, and just tidying up in general (it doesn't happen very often, so I have to go with it).

But one of the side benefits of cleaning up is that sometimes you find things that you didn't know you had. In this case I found something that I'd written that I didn't know I had. In a stack of papers, there was a one page list entitled "Why am I (still) a Christian?" I have no idea when I wrote this or what was going on in me at the time, but it got me thinking. Every once in a while, it is important to reflect on that very question -- Why do you believe what you believe? Believe it or not, even pastor-types like me ask this. And while the question can remain buried in us like a paper on the bottom of a big stack of forgotton thoughts, it is important to bring it out once in a while, dust it off, and remember.

I will share with you my list, but I would suggest you come up with your own sometime too. I am going to make an effort to dust these points off a little bit in the near future. Who knows, maybe they will become blog fodder in the near future? Blessings to you.

Jeff

p.s. The office above isn't really mine. I just scooped it up off Google. :)


Why am I (still) a Christian?

Verses: I Peter 3:15
John 6:67-69

1. Because it makes me real. It provides purpose and a life worth living. I am more myself when I am with Christ and following his ways.
2. Because I have been "seized by the Great Affection" -- as Jonathan Edwards says. It is a love story.
3. Because it provides a plausible answer for the reality of life.
4. Because the Bible has proven trustworthy to me.
5. Because it is based in dirt, earth, and history.
6. Because it was passed down to me.
7. Because of the gift of God (Ephesians 2).
8. Because of pain (i.e. because it does not seek to escape the world's realities, but to transform and embrace them).
9. Because it is good for creation. It is life-giving for the world.
10. Because Grace is the most holy, life-giving, subversive, transformative, eternal, diving concept in the world. There is nothing better out there.