On faith

SO.

If I asked you the very awkward question "Which religion's followers are the least intelligent?" I reckon you would um and ah and refuse to answer.

And rightly so.

But SECRETLY I reckon you'd be thinking: Christians.

Evidence here.

And I get it, I really do.

I realise it all sounds a bit wacky.

I realise that sometimes our music is embarrassingly bad.

And our leaders sometimes talk about money a bit too much.

I do. I really, really get it.

And when I was younger, I rebelled and tried desperately to shake my faith. But I COULDN'T.

Here's why:





I was three-years-old and walking alone along a footpath.

My adored dad had arrived to pick me up from my kindergarten and was standing on the steps, talking to my teacher - no doubt about what a fantastic student I was. Or possibly the fact that I refused, REFUSED to tie my shoe laces. I still don't like it, give me Velcro any day - but, I digress.

I was walking along the road towards his panel van.
Yes, a panel van, you just read that right.

Unbeknown to me, further down the road a car accident had just been avoided.
A car ran a red light, and another car swerving to avoid it, was spinning, out of control.

Towards me.

My dad started running and shouting, but he was too far away and as the car crossed in front of him, he feared the worst.

The car skidded to a stop. Right where I had been standing.

He ran, expecting to find me injured or even dead.

He saw me lying on the road, and was relieved to find me crying - not dead.

He knelt beside me, "where does it hurt?" he asked.

But I wasn't crying tears of pain.
I was crying tears of anger.

"WHO PUSHED ME?" I demanded angrily.

~

I realise countless children are killed or hurt on the road and elsewhere, every year, so I don't know why I was saved that day...

Perhaps it was to confirm my father's faith.
Perhaps it was to be a mother to my children.
Or a wife to my husband.
Perhaps it was so I would write this...

That incident on the road has certainly done all of those things.

And it also  means I can overlook the aspects of the Christian faith that make me cringe a little.

Coz I know there are BIGGER THINGS AT WORK.

Forces unseen.

A spiritual world.

I can't explain it.

I just know it.

“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust.

But how had I got this idea of just and unjust?

A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line.

What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?”

C.S. Lewis.