A Question

Posted on October 1st, 2004 by hanfaith.
Categories: Deep Thoughts.

This past Tuesday we talked with our youth group about being a child of God. When asked what it feels like to be known as such, we got a lot of blank looks. Our resident Christians finally spoke up and said, “I don’t know what it feels like, because I’ve never know what it doesn’t feel like.” Interesting theory. I guess I could say that I don’t truly know what it feels like to be a woman, because I’ve never been a man. Or that I don’t know what it feels like to see the world in beautiful color, because I’ve never been blind.

Instead, I postulate that we can truly know what something feels like, even if we’ve never known the opposite. Maybe instead, we could say that we don’t truly appreciate the extent of our feelings, because we’ve never been down in the valley to see how high the mountain top really is. Or at least, so we think. So to a lifelong Christian, is being a child of God like looking out from a hill instead of a majestic crag? If it is, I think it’s time to stop and think why. Are we blase with our faith because we’ve never known different? How sad.

I’ve known people who didn’t want to give their testimonies because they didn’t have an “exciting” conversion story. They didn’t have the moving drug addict story, or the cool partier turned Jesus freak episode.

I think most people need a paradigm shift. They think the only thing that can read as a valley experience is that external easily seen sin. I think it’s dangerous when Christians think they don’t have an exciting testimony. That’s like saying, I was pretty much ok before I became a Christian, and now I’m a little bit better. Talk about boasting in yourself. When I look at the Bible however, I see how much internal sin we all hide from the world. I see how sin had a slave driver’s whip to every single one of us - from the druggy to the school valedictorian. I see how when we take a look at ourself through the eyes of God and the help of the Bible and the revelation of the Holy Spirit, we see pride, greed, anger, lust, and all sorts of nastiness. And the truly miraculous thing is that God pulled us out of that. He gave us an answer. He gave us hope. He gave us a way. He gave us the way. And we should truly rejoice in that. Rejoice in what God has done. Rejoice in His awesome ways.

So to come back to the original question, I think we can know what it feels like to be a child of God, because the Bible clearly shows us what we would be like without God. It also shows us the condition of our hearts. If we are truly honest with ourselves, then we will come to grips with the bottomless pit of our sin and the endless ladder that pulls us up out of the muck.

EDIT: after writing this, I think I can see more clearly how “in everything” we can bring God glory. Thinking through these things has brought my heart to a worshipful place - more so than many other more conventional ways this week of expressing our hearts to God. Viva la blogging!

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