Diplomacy is considered to be better than war. It is a way of resolving conflicts without resorting to violence, and wars occur when diplomacy fails. Christians no longer go to war against each other as they did in the past, but fighting can be verbal even if it isn’t violent. Verbal attack has a very low threshold and is much more common as a result. Is it so prevalent that it seems like background noise that you no longer notice? Has strife become the default condition?
Do you see your faith as substantial or ethereal? Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Do you see the brilliance of this statement in the way it relates very concrete things (substance, evidence) with things that are invisible (things not seen and hope). Your faith encompasses both realms and provides a connection between them. You will be in error if your faith only embraces one of these. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Your faith is best lived with a foot in both worlds.
Do you see your life as a linear progression through time? Are most of the moments you experience routine and unexceptional and therefore not memorable? But in the course of your life you have accumulated moments that stand out, that you keep coming back to, that you share with others when opportunities arise for you to tell your story. What is it that makes these moments stand out from among the rest? What do they have in common? Are these exceptional moments times when the transcendent and eternal break through into full awareness? How can you structure your life to have more of them?
What type of world do you live in? Do you encounter skeptics that point to human suffering and say that it reflects badly on me? I said that my creation was good. Is it possible for this to be true even in a world that includes suffering, even your own? Even in the midst of your difficulties, do you live in a world that is congruent rather than random, in which everything belongs in its own way to a coherent whole, and which is moving, however slowly, toward a favorable conclusion, and that your life matters as a part of it?
Do you believe in destiny? Are you confident that you have one of your own? What does this concept mean to you? Do you think it refers to my will for you? Do you think it is exact and detailed? Do you despair of finding something so precise? I don’t want you to think that your faith is fatalistic or deterministic. I don’t want you to see yourself as a passive object in your own life. You do have a destiny but it is not a simple as walking in a set of footsteps set out before you. You need to look for it.
Do you practice an intellectually rigorous faith? Do not think that these concepts must be in opposition. Scholars throughout the ages have given serious thought to theology, and true faith will withstand scrutiny. You may find some things in your beliefs that don’t measure up, and find that they were not essential anyway. You don’t need to park your brain at the door of the church, but this is not the same thing as figuring everything out by yourself. You describe your faith as a relationship with me, but you normally apply rigorous thinking in the realm of propositional truth claims.
Do you have questions about your faith? You have engaged a subject that is so vast as to be comprehensive of all things and so consequential as to be the ultimate reality, but it does not lend itself to designed experiments, so it is normal that you would have some questions. Some churches will find your questions threatening because they do not have answers or seize too quickly upon inadequate ones. Yet I am not threatened by your questions. But at the same time I am not eager to answer them right away.
You read stories of my life and others from the Bible. What conclusions do you draw from them? For instance, when I fed 5000, do you think it serves to validate my claims of divinity? Does it have any significance beyond that? Does feeding the hungry resonate with you as something you should be doing too? Those who believe in me are called my followers, and your primary calling is to do the things I did. I gave you this assignment and promised to equip you to do the same works and even greater ones.
Have you ever flown on a plane? On a few airplanes the flight crew will wear parachutes, and military fighters are equipped with ejection seats. How do you view your salvation? Do you see it as a parachute to allow you to abandon ship and survive? Depending on your view of end time events you may see it as an ejection seat. This is a rather isolated and individualistic viewpoint. Do you see salvation as an escape from an irredeemable world? Is there another possible scenario that is larger and more inclusive? Continuing with the metaphor above, do you think I could make a safe landing?
I warned that many would come in my name that I didn’t send, and told my followers to take heed that no man deceive them. For when the faith grew and became popular it involved the risk that people would join out of mixed motives, or claim the name of Christ to advance their own agenda. Have you seen those who seem more eager to advance their own interests in my name than they are to be conformed to my image and belong to a Kingdom that is not of this world?
