Have you ever asked is God real? I watched with interest this interview with Hawk Nelson lead singer Jon Steingard that Way FM had the courage to not only record but broadcast. I heard the heartache as Jon Steingard shared his genuine search for answers.
I am not writing this to offer him any cliché answers or try to lead him back to God. I'm writing this because I know he isn't the only one with these questions.
In the same week as watching that interview, I also caught up with watching Ravi Zacharias's memorial service. I don't know if Jon and Ravi ever met but I would have loved to introduce them to each other. Louie Giglio said during the memorial, "If intellect and prose had a son his name would be Ravi Zacharias."
That statement so succinctly sums up the Ravi I knew. I never met him in person but I watched numerous videos of a man who was as eloquent as he was compassionate.
I'll forever be thankful for the many uploads of him answering questions around the world. My favourite videos are easily the open mic ones. He was a man always asking what was the question behind the question he was being asked. Every answer was full of as much love as it was his revelation of God.
In the same week, I also rewatched the movie The Shack. If you are unfamiliar with the story, it is about a grieving man who receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God. I'd watched it years ago and read the book. This time watching the creative way in which the author of the book William P. Young shares his revelation of God really stuck out to me.
Those three events happened in the same week that I was a part of a conversation about how many people who used to go to a church no longer do.
If you are still reading this it's possible you have previously or still are asking some of the questions Jon, Ravi, and William have asked. During this time, when so many church buildings have been closed due to government regulations, a lot of people have been asking questions.
It's a perfect time to gain a greater revelation of who God is. As important as it is to get together for community, God doesn't exist inside a building. The person up at the front is not the only person that can teach you about God.
I went to a funeral recently and heard of a woman who stopped going to church because, according to her now adult child, she grew tired of the hypocrisy.
I've known no better time in my life than now, with so much disruption happening, to be able to give someone some real hope. But, there are no easy answers.
I have no easy answers for the hard questions you might have. Nor do I have the word allowance to start tackling them one by one. All I can say is that in my journey, the more I've understood God's heart, the easier the answers to life's tough questions become.
I choose to look at the hope our future holds, rather than the fear the mainstream media spreads. At the same time, in a world where we are consuming more media than ever before, we need more media that might help someone answer the tough questions. We need more media that can challenge preconceptions produced to a quality rivalling the rest of the media that is created to harm your life rather than help it.
If you have questions I hope this article has helped you. If you know someone with questions you don't have answers for, I pray you are still loving them.
Let me leave you with the words of Chris Rice from the live A night in Rocketown album:
"One of the big questions that we ask all the time Lord How come? And our world has been asking us that for 2,000 years. You say this Christ is coming back for you and you Christians are building your life on something you have never seen before. Well, where is he? How come he hasn't come back yet? And the answer that the Lord gives to that is I am not slow concerning my promise but I am not willing that any should perish.
"The only reason God is waiting is not because he wants to extend our suffering and extend our pain but because he wants to extend his mercy to more people that can find his truth. So when that question comes up or all the other questions that come into our lives I want to encourage you and dare you where ever you are on the spectrum of belief in God. whether you've never even begun or whether you've been following him for as long as you can remember.
"I dare you to run toward God with those questions because he is big enough to hold us while we are waiting for the answers."
Courtesy of Press Service International.
