It is quite possible that I am currently dreaming. And
it is certainly possible that I am fully awake. I wonder some times
about the bubble I live in. If I just pushed hard enough with those
invisible hands could I pop what must be a fragile frontier? Probably
not…and that is probably a good thing. What is beyond that bubble?
Terrifying realities or the confirmation of all the things I have come
to believe?
I’ve been asked before why I’m a Christian. People
always seem to want to talk about the scientific/materialistic reasons
for believing or not believing in Jesus. We seem to want some kind of
hard evidence that would stand up in a court of law as though God were
some kind of object bound by scientific laws. I can never really give
people good answers when they come at Jesus from that angle. I know a
lot of those answers, but I never found them compelling myself when I
wasn’t a believer. Some people get disappointed when I don’t get
passionate about debating the reality of Jesus. Quite frankly I find
it a boring debate. Faith, good old simple faith, just doesn’t cut it
for many in our modern/post-modern/going somewhere/ culture, and the
moment it makes an appearance it is quickly dismissed because you can’t
evaluate it in any concrete way. But what else can I truly offer?
I
believe because I met Jesus. That encounter, that meeting, for me was
as real and true as though I had just met my friend Wes. Since then
I’ve only gotten to know Jesus more deeply. All my faith, my belief,
is a result of that first meeting and the subsequent experience of
getting to know Jesus. Some of my experiences have been downright
weird and spooky, but they have convinced me further that this person
Jesus who was crucified some 2000 years ago is indeed alive, and is who
he claimed to be. Personal experience is not enough to convince
others, I know, for it can not be evaluated in concrete terms any more
than faith can be, but its what I’ve got and for me it is more than
enough.
It is quite possible that I am currently dreaming.
And it is certainly possible that I am fully awake. I wonder some
times about the bubble I live in. If I just pushed hard enough with
those invisible hands could I pop what must be a fragile frontier?
Eric Janzen is an active member of Friends Langley Vineyard. The wild goose (pictured above) is an old Celtic symbol of the Holy Spirit. Drawn by Terry Van Roon