Monday, January 12, 2009

IS IT TRUE ? The Shadow proves the Sunshine?

Switchfoot has a song from the album "Nothing Is Sound" which goes like this-

" We are crooked souls trying to stay up straight,
Dry eyes in the pouring rain where
The shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine

Two scared little runaways
Hold fast till the break of daylight where
The shadow proves the sunshine... "

and so on.

Could it be true?
Assuming that Switchfoot was talking of pain,suffering and trouble as Shadow,and the end of that suffering and finally finding hope in God as Sunshine,
could this be true?
Can the beginning,being and end of suffering point us towards God?

Can the sudden pain inflicted by life,be something more than my darkest night?
Can it be something that will be used in my life,at the very least,as a wound that would make me (hopefully!) wiser?

But it makes sense when put that way. The Shadow proves the Sunshine.
Even when the sunshine was out there all the time, we only recognise what warmth and light was upon us only after the shadow comes along.

What if my car skids on the frozen road,one moonless night,and crashes through the barrier into the cold,chilling river?
Will i curse God and die, even if i was the one who was over-speeding and not Him?
Will i remember that my brakes were faulty? Or will i still blame the ice?
Will i ever know that the cold waters had extinguished the spark of flame,right next to the car's gas tank?

What if the driver sinks with the car and dies one of the worst deaths possible?

Will the Shadow prove the Sunshine then?

We can only hope to God it will;to someone.
somewhere.
sometime.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Help the prejudiced thinker.

Here we come.

We wake up, knowing not what to believe.
We go through our religious motions,fearfully hoping,and lovingly talking to a God we believe in.
We live in a world, where subtle messages pummel us the moment we step out the door..prejudices about our faith, about our unbelief,about our aspirations,about our hopes.

Prejudices about ourselves,our friends,our God,our Agnosticism, our Atheism.
We cannot tell which are more in number- the water vapour in the fog or the prejudices we create while walking through that fog.

A simple bus journey can supply us (and we buy it) with prejudices about the person before us, about the glaring conductor,about our journeys,about our safeties,about our ticket fares..

Every moment we stand in one day.
Every moment we sit in one day.
Every moment we try to sleep in one day.
Every moment we think about these thoughts we should or should not think.
Every moment we are prejudiced.

Every single person we pass by, presents us with such a wide range of thoughts to associate with,but only one prejudiced opinion to settle upon.
We live in a world where every word heard, or overheard, or worse, imagined, has a hint at it's end.We live by these hints.

We can't act upon thoughts. Because dishonesty seeped in with prejudice.
We wonder when to act. Because procrastination seeped in with dishonesty.
We wonder how to believe. Because unbelief seeped in with procrastination.

And we don't know how to swim in that locked room where all of this seeps in.

The only time we are right,is when we stumble upon God's truth in our haze.
We say- " oh..i am still on my way. i am not lost yet. "
Yet.

But fickle-minded,we are tossed around waves, by every single school of thought,concerned with issues like - "is veg the right thing or non-veg?" to "can we ever trust the Bible to be true?"

We say our regular prayers-
"i don't have enough faith in You."
"i am a believer;HELP me believe."
"i don't KNOW which is better for me-to seek evidence or to trust like a child does."

Prejudice is the evil twin of doubt.

Trouble is, we seem to enjoy these prolonged vacillations.
Much like the married man who is prolonging an affair.

" ENJOY?? I Hate IT ! But i CANT stop it..!"

So what other explanation can we give for undecided ways,for long-lasting,rusted procrastinations?

Prejudiced minds breed fear,inside the mind.
Fear of a decision is the worst of it's kind.
We fear what we may find. We forget we are prejudiced.
So we continue in fear. As if this could be eternal.

We Prejudiced thinkers.

We must stop being dishonest with ourselves.

Lest we fear the day God will be honest with us.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

The Moment of Unbelief.

Sam was truly delighted that he had stumbled about the exact Moment of Unbelief in his thoughts.

That was because the stream of thoughts is almost always so uniformly red with blood, that it used to be next to impossible to spot the injured animal that fell into the crystal-clear stream and turned it red with it's blood. The injured animal is what Sam calls his specific doubt,of course.

Sam was listening to Usha talk joyously about the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham,who had gone about the attempt to sacrifice his only son at the command of his God.

Sam listened, as Usha explained,with a vicarious sadness, how Abraham must have felt when He received the command from God, to sacrifice the very son God had promised him so many years ago? What would have Abraham been thinking at this juncture?

* "This is NOT happening! How can i sacrifice my ONLY son? And He is the promised child. What about Your promise then, huh? YOU Promised me. Why are you harming me.. Are YOU, oh good One, trying to make fun of me and my family? And what will Sarah say? Will she be able to say anything if i do this? This is NOT happening God."

But if Abraham was thinking all this, he would not have proceeded with taking young Isaac with him, on the pretext of a journey.
But he did go. Abraham did go ,whether he felt like it or not.
And we are at a complete loss as to what Abraham was thinking, while he was journeying with a servant and Isaac,to that mountain of sacrifice.

Abraham wisely asked the servant to stay at a distance from the hill where they were to offer the sacrifice.
Had the servant seen Abraham beginning to tie up Isaac at the altar, he would have gone berserk ("i thought so when we started off from Mesopotamia;this guy was mentally challenged right from the beginning!
'Leave the Boy ALONE, you FREAK ' ! ")

This is the same Abraham who left his folks back in Ur,a place in Mesopotamia,just because God had asked him to.
He had no clue what was gonna happen out there.

Now,he was gonna kill his own son,and offer him to God. Just because God had asked him to.
And he had no clue what was gonna happen out here.

As Usha spoke, with wonder at her own words, Sam heard her talk of what was going through Isaac's heart. The boy,seeing no goat for the sacrifice, wondered aloud to his father- "Abba, where is the goat for our sacrifice to the LORD?"

Sam didnt know if anyone on this earth has ever imagined Abraham's reply to his son (What was harder to imagine could be- HOW on earth did Abraham utter ANYTHING at all?)

- "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son."
(Taken from the Book of Genesis chapter 22,Verse 8 ,the Bible)

And that was the Point of Unbelief. Sam had caught it by the horns. Almost.
The point of tears building up to burst. But they didnt burst within Sam. Why Sam. Why?

The point where Sam heard and knew it now for himself- God always wanted good. Even out of all the evil around them all. God still wanted good. He was NOT a bad-heart.

And when Abraham swung up the knife to thrust it into the Promised son called Isaac, (oh heaven must have cried- Holy, Holy..!)
The angel appeared .. "Abraham, buddy NOO ! Dont..!"
(" i just cant believe that. ")
A ram was found caught in the bushes by it's thorns..
(" i wont[did Sam say-he WONT believe that story in History?].. i wont believe it. ")

The ram was offered to the LORD. Abraham boy, your LORD did provide.
("it never happened.")
What about Sam's LORD? When has he provided or not provided? And how did it matter or not matter to Sam?

Usha was glad, almost euphoric when she finished telling the story of Isaac's sacrifice. She must have believed it to tell it.

Sam's barriers were up. Some of his heart-land had been watered by Heaven's rains. Some of his heart-land he hid away from the rains.

And Sam walked away, very bittersweet. Very bitter. Very Sweet.

Isaac was spared. To the atheist, the ram spared Isaac. Or still better,like Sam thought - it never happened. So far, so good.

By the way, the name Isaac means something like - "he laughed".
Why was that? Because his dad and mom had laughed when Someone promised them a child.

That's another story. Hey Sam. You wanna listen to this one?

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Storm Warning: The Bridge is closed.

Those who are familiar with GTA:Vice City will know about the initial stages of the game where Tommy Vercetti,the protagonist is roaming about in Vice City after the bungled-up deal from which he escapes alive.
Those who dont know, Vice City allows the player to roam around the city, exploring on foot or bikes or scooters or cars,or speedboats or helicopters,or.. ok,LATER! This Game i love!

There's this bridge to the mainland which is closed to traffic in the initial stages of the game.

And as an explorer, how much ever you want to cross over to the mainland, from the small island you are on.. you just cannot. Atleast it seems to you that way.

I have tried it at different times of the day (which means that i have tried to cross the bridge to mainland when it is 'daytime' or 'evening' or 'night' in the game :) )

The bridge is always blocked with those wide road barriers with the notice - "BRIDGE CLOSED" on them. I have tried crossing the barriers-
on windy nights..
on rainy,stormy nights..
I have tried crossing the barrier on foot..
Tried Jumping over the barrier after running towards it at full-speed.

Tried Riding a bike at the barrier at full-speed hoping that the bike(one of those Harley-Davidson -type cruiser bikes) would crash into the barrier,but i would fly past the barriers.. to no avail of course. I only lost health in the process.
Tried Driving a Taxi into the barrier(yeah, i dont know what i was thinking when i tried that.)

Why am i writing about a road barrier in a computer game in a blog that's supposed to talk about doubt?

Oh, :D i guess i screwed up this one trying to draw a parallel between the road barrier and the 'thick' unbelief about God and about the Bible i often experience in my mind.

* Are the Gospels not man-made fabrications, half-truths about Jesus ?
* What if this Christian phenomenon is somehow a big lie?
(I never ask- " what IF it's all true? " :) )
* How come some of my problems are not going anywhere inspite of my belief in such a wonder-working and loving and merciful God ?
* I wanna be healed of this sickness NOW. If there's anything true, i WANT that NOW!
(That sounded more like a boss,shouting to his secretary than a man pleading to his God..!)


To me the Road barrier to that Bridge in Vice City represents the hard-core unbelief that i often face in my walk in belief in Christ.

And well, it's usually during hard times that such terrifying unbelief occurs to me.. i so often splash into my ceaseless stream of thoughts and scream within me..

" Boy, That WAS SOME real Unbelief. How could you even THINk of so degrading, so thoughtless and so faithless a thought about your Lord God? You are no better! "

Guilt comes running to embrace me and my thoughts.
I should be running to God at these times.

There's usually nothing i can do but stare at the bridge that can lead me to mainland.
I cannot see where the bridge leads, but i know its a place called Belief.
I want to go there.

Only all i can focus in this storm of unbelief are the storm warning barriers.
Unbelief doesnt go that easy.. I have stared it it in the face for ages, or so it would seem.
I often think that I, as a Christian, have treated God unfairly.
I never used to exhibit such behaviour when i never knew who Jesus was.

If it was a case of breathlessness, it used to be-
"Aww man, this is so suffocating. I cant help it. I need the inhaler right now! It hurts so bad..!"

And now,after trusting God with my life and future, it is usually-
"Oh man.. i cant breathe at all.. Lord, help me! Cant YOU see?? I am your child! I am suffocating! Please heal me now..
WHY should i use the inhaler. Heal me completely and for ever Lord.. please!!
WONT YOU HEAR ME?"

:) How terrible na?

Yeah, with the kind of Track record God has had in History to do miracles, it's well, kind of justifiable, this kind of whining from my side..
OF COURSE I Expect Him to Flash and Bang my sickness, My Storms away.

But i guess God would have expected this behaviour too when he took me under His wings.

As for this storm now, i know i dont Deserve to survive it, but then i never deserved my God.
He took me inspite of what i am.
So i will wait.
I will explore the city and wait for the Storm to blow away.

The presence of the Storm of Unbelief maybe the very indication that it never belonged to this city.
It has to leave.

Thats my only hope.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Doubt : The origins. Part 1.

" Doctor, do you believe that there can be a God as described by these Christians? "

"I am a doctor, not a priest. "

"Huh.. I think it's hard to believe in such a God as they describe.. "

"You are not convinced by the evidence for such a God, I think."

"Shaw!!! Surely you know better than that Doctor. Do you think the.."

"I confess I was only amusing myself when I said that.. you must Forgive me."

"Oh good. Forgiveness.. You see Doctor, this is what I am talking about.
Christians confess a God who is all-powerful.
They say He constructed the whole of the Universe, both what we can see and cannot.
They believe that He cant be seen, He wont intervene in the affairs of His creation, yet He came to live amongst humankind as a Person.
They believe Jesus was that person. They also believe that Jesus let people kill him so as to achieve a means of Forgiveness for all who would want to believe in him to be God incarnate.

And then of course, he rose from the dead, just as he predicted. CAN YOU BEAT THAT Doctor!"

"Yes, I can beat that. I am an alien from the star Betelgeuse."

"Haha! Doctor, dont you see? How can anyone picture the image of an invisible, non-intervening, never-outdone, Knows-your-thoughts-before-you-can-think-em God to be the image of a human, Jesus, worked miracles,wise beyond hypocrisy,loving,crucified on a hill?"

"What seems to be the problem in that ? All the evidence that we discussed, the archaeology, the irrefutable eye-witnesses in the New Testament,the Resurrection of Jesus.."

"NO NO NO! I TOLD you NOT to talk about that Doctor! I TOLD you DAMMIT.."

"You are pointing a gun at me."

"I.. NO ! NO MORE TALK ABOUT EVIDENCE, I SAY DOCTOR..!! "

"Put the gun back . You will hurt yourself. "

"Ok. Fine. ok.. allright...ok..
You think my problem is the evidence?
My problem is something else. I want to believe.. yet I cant believe.
Its a risk for me, this God-thing. If I believe Him, and if He lets me down.."

"You are sure He will let you down? That's faith."

"Dont interrupt me Doctor. Please. I am not a prisoner of evidence. I am a prisoner of something, someone else."

"Would you love to change yourself and your ways of living,at the cost of pain, if this God of yours tells you to change?"

" Huh..What did you say..?"