October the month where things start to get a little colder and the scenery changes around us, I love watching how the seasons change the scenery especially when it comes to the sea, where once calm ripples where now choppy water and large waves start to appear. It’s great watching this from the harbours on the north coast watching the sea and its power changes but thankfully the strength of the harbour doesn’t.
Watching this reminded me of an allegory I gave to a friend years ago when we were talking about faith and how it can be affected by the ‘big questions’… He was a Christian who had a scientist mind and recently had this faith challenged by another Christian when he said he believed in the Big Bang, while this other person did not the other Christian had made me feel bad in his faith for believing the Big Bang theory and now he was struggling.
As I listened to him I got upset that one Christian would make another feel awful in their faith like this, yes as Christians we should correct one another as instructed by Paul, however, I believe this should be done in love and over matters that have biblical guidance, not over an opinion of how God created the world!
As we chatted I realised two things, firstly we shouldn’t be afraid to disagree on some of these bigger questions, healthy debate is a good thing and it gets us talking about God! Something I love doing is reading a bible verse with friends and then listening as each person gets something different from it, each opinion as valid as the other. It’s how we grow in our understanding of scripture and God, we listen for his voice and we share with each other what he is speaking and we learn from each other. Its ok to not agree 100% with what someone else gets from scripture, God might be speaking something into their life or he might be challenging you to think outside your comfort zone.
The second thing was about my own faith, this guy had his faith shaken a bit by what had been said, but I realised in that moment that my belief in who Jesus is doesn’t change by my further learning about these ‘big questions’. So I shared this allegory, ‘My faith in Jesus is like a solid house that I know and constantly grow into, while these questions are the Garden’
What I mean by that is that I know who Jesus is, he constantly reveals more of himself to me and this makes my foundations in him remain firm, while the garden is my understanding of these big questions or even the season of life I’m in much, it changes it looks a little different (or somethings hugely different) but much like how the waves look very different in the seasons but the harbour doesn’t change, so too does the garden, it might change appearance but it doesn’t have an impact on the foundations of my house
Challenge each other to learn more of God but do it in Love and never allow it to unsettle the foundations of your faith in Jesus, allow it to strength them or even get an extension to the house, but don’t move from a mansion to a flat.