I’ve heard this statement more times than I care to remember, “Religion is a very personal subject and is best left for the privacy of your home.”   Why? Jefferson didn’t leave it at home.   Washington didn’t leave it at home. Madison didn’t leave it at home.   Lincoln didn’t leave it at home.  Isaac Newton didn’t leave it at home.  

If religion is a personal thing that means it is a part of who we are as a person.  How then can we leave it at home?  It goes with us wherever we are.  It is who we are.   If we practice faith that means the One in which we have faith in guides all of our decisions.  

If we believe our religion is a good thing then how can we remain sincere and keep it private.  Would we not then be selfish by keeping it to ourselves?  Our very act and attitude of selfishness then goes against what we say we believe.  So we cannot practice our belief, which teaches and guides us to not be self-centered, and keep our religion to ourselves.   Love not shared is not really love.  Faith not shared is not really faith.

I do not believe we need to force our belief on someone.  Actually I don’t believe we can.  Rather than force our belief we demonstrate our belief and thereby offer it up to any and all that would wish to share it.

 Some argue that we should not offend others by sharing or practicing our faith.  Why have we promoted offending someone to the level of ‘high crimes’.  Believe me, Christians have been offended plenty of times. We get over it.  I don’t promote offending someone for the sake of offending them, but we could all be a little more thick-skinned.

Would you not be much more offended if I had just been given more brownies than I could eat but I didn’t offer any to you?  We have been given more love from God than we could ever consume – offer it up.

We’ve been saying all along that God makes sense, not just that it makes sense there is a God, but that what He says and does makes sense. We certainly don’t always understand everything God does and says, especially at the moment we are first hearing or experiencing it. Often, things become clearer to us as we go through them and afterwards.

In Luke 5:4-7, Jesus tells some fishermen, Peter included, how to fish. Of course all of us who fish think we know a lot about fishing – just ask us, but we likely wouldn’t feel like we could tell a professional how to do their job. Now Jesus was a carpenter by trade, not a fisherman. Peter, on the other hand was a fisherman by trade. Here is how the conversation went. “When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.”

Jesus the carpenter told Peter the fisherman to go back out and put down for a catch of fish. Peter knew that they had been out all night fishing and hadn’t had success and now was not the time try again, but for whatever reason, maybe out of respect for Jesus, he complied, even though what Jesus was asking DID NOT MAKE SENSE. When they tried again they caught such a load of fish that it began to make the boats sink.

Sometimes what God does, asks, says, doesn’t make sense to us. If Peter hadn’t complied with what did not make sense to him he would have missed out on an incredible catch. How many blessings have we missed out on? Didn’t He say His ways were higher than ours?

Sometimes God doesn’t make sense to us until later. Sometimes we have to trust Him first before we can see that He was right all along. In some cases ‘things’ never make sense to us. Its not always so clear as it was in the story above. What reason do you have to think God doesn’t make sense?

That feeling of contentment, when all seems to be well, when we have the peaceful calm about us; is something we all long for.  Sometimes we confuse happiness or pleasure, even gain for contentment, only to find out they are not the same. 

Adam and Eve had all they would ever need and truthfully all they could hope for, yet when tempted they sought something else.  Once they got what they had sought they realized they were not more content, but actually less content than their original state.

We too, find ourselves thinking, “if I could only have this”, or “if only my situation or condition would change this way”, I would be content.  You see by thinking this way we prove that contentment is something to be desired.  The truth, if we would accept it is that, no condition of itself will bring contentment, but rather we experience contentment when our mind brings us to it.

I recently encountered a question regarding a passage of scripture. The passage is 2 kings 2. The questioner stated that this struck them as an incredibly unreasonable reaction from Elishah. This passage of scripture can be concerning when we consider it from the view that believes in a God of mercy and compassion.

Lets look at a few points of clarity that might help in our examination. First we read the term “youths” and we think of a group of adolescents having fun while out of school for the summer. Some versions even translate this a “little children”. The actual Hebrew word here is used for a variety of ages in different places in the Old Testament and can include fully grown individuals (see Genesis 32:22, 34:4, 37:30 and Ruth 1:5 for some examples). In addition, some Jewish writers have translated this term into “Naarim,” because they had ‘shaken from the commandments’. Indicating these could have easily been people who were “childish” in their belief and behavior, both socially and morally, and not having anything to do with their age. They were obviously old enough to outside the city in the wilderness, alone accompanied by “chaperones”.

Second, we read their mocking which states, “Go on up, you baldhead!” they said. “Go on up, you baldhead!” and we again think of some misguided teenagers having some fun at the expense of an old guy who has lost his hair. We think of them telling him to go on up back to Bethel. Well, that’s not what they are saying. Bethel is the city where the ‘sons of the prophets’ resided. It was also the mother city of idolatry. There is very little doubt that this mocking, scoffing incident was not the first, but one of many in a long line of scoffing at the prophets, but more importantly, scoffing at the works and subsequently, the very nature of God.

Telling Elisha to “Go on up”, did not refer to him going on up to the city, but rather to follow Elijah, who had just ascended into heaven, as witnessed by Elisha in the previous section of this chapter. They are not primarily mocking his lack of hair but the miraculous work of God in taking Elijah up to heaven. It is very possible that Elisha is relating this miraculous work of God and they scoff and mock in derision, telling him to go on up with Elijah. This had become a pattern of behavior for the towns people who had hardened their hearts against God. This mockery was their usual practice, rooted in their impiety and hatred of God. Mocking the messenger of God was one of the crying sins of Israel.

They mocked not only a man, an aged man who should be respected, and a prophet or messenger of God who should be revered, but they mocked God Himself and the glorious and miraculous work in the ascension of the prophet Elijah.

When we first read this we think of some adolescents having a little fun at a bald old man’s expense and while that bothers us, none of us can imagine them deserving to be torn apart by bears for it. The problem is that is not an accurate picture of what took place here. These individuals were the idolatrous, infidel, young men of the place, who along with their parents and the rest of the town’s people had made it a practice to jeer, mock, and scoff at the prophets of God and even God Himself. They had turned their backs on God to idolatry and they looked upon Him and His messengers with derision and disdain.

I certainly do not know what God’s motives were in carrying out this act against these people. I would not jump to the conclusion that it was merely an act of anger on His part. John Wesley puts it like this “and that, if any of these children were more innocent, God might have mercy upon their souls, and then this death was not a misery, but a real blessing to them, that they were taken away from that education which was most likely to expose them not only to temporal, but eternal destruction. In the name – Not from any revengeful passion, but by the motion of God’s Spirit, and by God’s command and commission. God did this, partly, for the terror and caution of all other idolaters and prophane persons who abounded in that place; partly, to vindicate the honour, and maintain the authority of his prophets; and particularly, of Elisha, now especially, in the beginning of his sacred ministry.”

Christians are so closed-minded.  We hear that all the time.  But are they really the closed-minded ones?  Consider this example.

A Christian does not have to believe that all of the rest of the world’s religion’s are completely wrong.   An atheist on the other hand must believe that ALL of the other religion’s of the world are totally and completely wrong. (C.S. Lewis)

From the Christian view, the other religions of the world have some varying levels of truth within them.  The Atheist on the other hand, who likes to brag about their open-mindedness, believes there is no God and therefore ANY religion that believes in the existence of anything spiritual is wrong.  Which view seems more open-minded?

I was recently discussing my book that I am writing by the same title as this Web Site with a young man.  When I told him the title he stated, “but God doesn’t make sense.”  When I asked him why, he responded with a question I get often – “why do bad things happen to good people?”  That’s a question that probably all of us have wondered about and been troubled with at one time or another.

I’m not going to attempt to answer this question in full in this article.   The scope of that question is too large to address in one blog.  What I ‘d like to do here is put forth something to consider when you are thinking about that question.

Have you ever had a bad day?  Of course you have.  That time you did poorly on the test or you had that fender bender that was your fault, or when you got that speeding ticket.  Maybe it was when you lost the championship game.  At the time these things were frustrating, even sad.  We would classify them as bad things.  But as time went on they bothered us less and they certainly impacted us less.  Maybe enough time has passed by now that they seem almost trivial.  If not it one day will.  They seem almost unimportant in the overall story of our lives.  The two or three hours or even few days that were “ruined” by these things seem minor in the full picture of our lives, especially if you are someone who has lived say 40 or 50 or even 70 or 80 years or more.

While I certainly do not wish to diminish the pain and suffering that come with more serious things in life like cancer or the death of a loved one, lets consider how they fit into the overall picture of things as well.  Things like these are serious and they cause pain and sadness.  The test, the speeding ticket, the car accident mentioned above became less of a defining item in our lives as more time passed.  Is it possible that these more serious matters may also?

As Christians our view of life is that it is eternal.  We do not view life as lasting merely 60, 70 , 80 or 90 years, but for all of eternity.  Consider what the cancer, or the loss of a loved one will be like in comparison to 100 million years. 

I know this doesn’t ‘explain’ why bad things happen to good people.  We will try and address some of that in future posts.  But maybe it helps put it in some perspective and makes it a little easier to accept and understand. 

Consider this question.  Why do good things happen to bad people?