It is hard for me to write Christian non-fiction these days, because it demands confidence in what I believe. It’s also difficult for me to engage in religious conversations with people, because they so often act as though they understand each facet of God and His will for their lives.
I don’t know anyone my age who has read the Bible more times than I have, but at the end of the day, there is very little I feel I understand about God. When people speak about God with so much confidence, it reminds me of a ladybug or an ant who believes he understands the weather, diesel trucks, and how to make chocolate pudding.
So what I do understand about God, I believe, is due to revelation and nature.
You might ask, “What do you mean by nature?”
When someone is in genuine need, and I want to help that person, and then I do help that person, the satisfied feeling, and in some way, healing, it brings, I believe reflects the Divine Being who created me. When I would choose an uninterrupted dinner with family and friends, where the room is filled with laughter, over receiving a check for a thousand dollars, I believe this is a reflection on the Divine Being who created me.
So anytime I write anything, or speak on any subject, I always try to remember that my understanding is limited due to my finite mind.
There is a story I heard once, about a family whose two-story house was burning down. The family escaped into the yard, and the father realized his youngest boy, Jason, six years old, wasn’t beside him. The father looked up at the window to his boys room, and there was Jason, standing at the open window, smoke blinding his eyes, yelling for his dad.
His father shouted, “Jason! I’m down here! Jump!”
Jason called back, “But I can’t see you!”
His father replied, “I know you can’t see me, but I can see you! Jump!”
I believe this is what faith is, and it is what God calls us to do: Jump.
-James Russell Lingerfelt