I Believe

Recently, I was given a "challenge" to list 10 things that are my beliefs. Seemingly an easy project for someone like me i.e. opinionated and passionate. But it has actually got me thinking.

There are a ton of things I believe. But what is it I really believe? And is it really all that important? What is it that I am absolutely sure of? What is it that affects how I see the world? What is it that I get comfort from? What is it that I believe so strongly that I want to hold on to and improve? So here they go...if I had to limit it to 10....and in no special order.

• I believe that a pro-life view goes beyond the womb. It extends to how whether or not I acknowledge the lady in the store behind me or the employee at the cash register. It affects how what decisions I will make about the care of my parents and should be considered when making decisions/forming opinions about immigration, food stamps, the death penalty, and homosexual rights. Does this mean that we ("pro-lifers") will all have the same opinions about these issues? No, not at all. But it does mean that answers are no longer black and white. The immigration issue becomes a bit more difficult when it is no longer simply an "issue" but faces and families. Our answer - stay or go - has to respond to their humanity and our solution has to include a value of life. I believe that when we act in a way that is devaluing to life in the process even if our outcome is "right" we have done wrong.

• I believe that patriotism/nationalism have become too linked and too common a bedfellow with Christianity. Having lived in a foreign country for more than a short term mission trip or having lived not at a tourist location, I am forever grateful to have been born in this country. I am thankful for all that others have done to make this country what it is from the military to the mine workers to famous people who have lead the way with vision and the ordinary people who have followed risking much in their daily life. But I cringe when the flag is raised to the same or almost same level as the cross. I fear we have forgotten the sin the Israelites committed in the wilderness creating a golden calf. I worry we have also forgotten the God of Moses who destroyed that sacred cow. God did not send His son to die on a cross so that we might be called to a nation. This is especially frustrating when the Bible is full of those who stood against culture, nation, and tribe because their God called them to a Kingdom that was not made of earthly stuff, that was bigger than them and their tribe, their ethnicity, or their nation. And God's Kingdom knows no nationalities or boundaries.

• I believe in the following spiritual law when it comes to an understanding of God, Christ, Spirit, and the Word of God: the more you know, the more you understand, the less you know, the less you understand. I am both okay and not okay with this spiritual paradox. On any given day I can fill astonishment, wonder, awe, excitement, amazement, increase in faith, frustration, sorrow, anger, doubt and despair about this spiritual reality.

• I believe that marriage is God's way of making us holy, both in helping us to be more like Christ and in making us something completely different than anything we could do/know on our own (another definition of holy). Marriage is God's way of displaying His full and complete image in human form, the Trinity in flesh. Oneness. Completeness. I believe this was His intention at creation. (which means I do not believe that God's original intention was for woman to live as we do now in submission to man - not just in marriage but in the way inequality is seen in the workplace to pornography).

• I believe that it the family's job to raise a child to know God, to engage in a relationship with Christ and to live out his/her life in harmony with the Holy Spirit. The church has usurped this responsibility, many times with the best of intentions. A better method is for the church to help parents understand their responsibility, help them know how to do this, disciple them so they are equipped to live as godly parents, encourage them, support them, and to reach out to those children without families to do this. And to engage families of all kinds even if they don't match the "traditional" model.

• I believe that the very decision to follow Christ is an admittance of inadequacy. It is the raising of a white flag and notifying the world that "I am a SINNER and in need of Grace". I believe that followers of Christ should be honest this - about doubt, sins, ups and downs and everything in between. We do not have to have it all figured out; we only have to trust.

• I do NOT believe that if one believes enough, hopes enough, and has enough faith that all will be well and wonderful. I believe this view point is contrary to the whole Story of the Word of God. God is bigger than my wallet size or even my health. Do I like this? No! Do I understand it? Absolutely not! Do I even think it's fair? No! But I am not God (a fact I sometimes forget).

• I believe that each person bears the image of God, Muslim, Jew, Atheist, straight, gay, married, single, divorced, celebrating 50 years of wedded bliss, Osama Bin Laden and Mother Theresa. This gives each person intrinsic value and means I should treat them always aware of the image of God branded on them (something I confess that my critical nature and quick tongue struggle to do).

• I believe that I have married an amazing man. I respect him in a way I have no other man. He makes me a better person. And he loves me immensely.

• I believe that I have been blessed more than I realized and I too often live in an attitude of ingratitude, waiting for the "other shoe" to drop instead of living in joy in response to all that I have.

That's what I believe. Everything else is up for grabs.