What We Believe is Important

The man in the hospital bed was in his mid 40’s.  He was recovering from an accident.  As he said,  “ I was hit by a city bus.”  I was visiting him because I was one of the chaplains on duty and he was one of the patients on my floor.

In the course of the conversation he told me “God’s plan was that the bus hit me and I end up in the hospital.”  “Oh really?”  “How do you know God wanted you to be hit by a city bus?”  “Well, chaplain, isn’t that how God works?”  “If we are bad people, then God punishes us.”

Needless to say, there are lots of issues to discuss here:  How God works, why he feels he’s a bad person, God’s responses to our sinfulness.  Just to name a few.

Last month I invited you to ponder what difference being a Christian means for your life.  What did you discover?  You might even want to ponder the question again.  What we believe makes a difference.

It makes a difference in how we life if we believe (use the word, “Trust”) that God is good and God’s will is directed toward our good (not our ill).  It makes a difference whether we view God’s judgments, God’s “no”,  not a punishment but as  “appraisal” of our lives and our actions and as God’s means of restoring us to a healthier relationship with Christ.

As one Christian has observed that what the Cross says about God is NOT that God thinks human kind is so wretched that it deserves death and hell.  Rather, God thinks human kind is so beautiful, so good, so precious and valuable that its salvation and redemption are worth dying for. 

The Cross of Jesus is God’s NO to sin, evil, destruction, death and anything that would destroy the goodness of human kind and creation.  The Cross is also God’s YES to everything that brings life and light, hope and healing, restoration and renewal of human kind and the whole of creation.

I’m for making a difference in this world of ours……How ‘bout you?