The most remarkable year of my life and easily the one in which my faith grew the most was the 12 months I spent as a young man working at a rural college in India.
The double blow of not knowing God and not knowing anybody at all brought me to a place of loneliness and crisis.
Once I was able to acknowledge my complete inability to cope, God was more than able to meet me, and in fact brought me to a small but loving fellowship in which I began to learn what it meant to walk with God.
For the remainder of that year my faith was flying as I grew in understanding and dependency.
Sometimes I feel a wave of sadness looking back – why isn’t my faith still like that?
In fact since then (almost 30 years) my faith has changed, several times.
Like most Christians I have had to work through doubts, think about why God “doesn’t do what he’s supposed to”, and even my understanding of who God is has changed.
But in fact it’s OK, even necessary, for our faith, our understanding of scripture, and our idea of God himself to change over time:
Our relationships change over time
Think about your relationship with your wife or husband.
Over the years it has changed.
You have both grown as individuals and you have also grown in your understanding of each other.
Perhaps some of the early romance or unpredictability has gone, but then so has much of the arguing about nothing.
You may have new shared interests and have lost old ones you never imagined you could do without.
Or think of your relationship with your parents.
As we grow older this changes as we transition from dependency to a kind of equity, to finally being depended upon.
In all our close relationships as our knowledge of each other grows, we can increasingly anticipate each other’s reactions, moods, and even thoughts.
God made us in his image, to be in loving relationship with him, but good relationships develop. Continue reading.
Sources
- Chris Goswami is Director of Marketing & Communications at Openwave Mobility and is studying and training for ordained ministry in the Baptist Church.
- Image: 7minutes.net
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