(This is a blurb i wrote to Will Gadd, one of the world's best climbers, in reply to a piece he wrote about religions on his blog)
I'm curious to know what your take is on christianity. Three years ago i became a christian and it has made a monster difference in my life, especially in the adventure sports world. I find myself (these days) relying on God for his direction and guidance.
Just this weekend past some friend of mine and I did a trip up to Jumbo Cabin (sick skiing). Anyways, with any trip there usually lays an epic. OF course we had a few. But within those times of desperosity, a few of us found ourselves praying to God that he would have mercy on us, in essence, guide us out of trouble. Sure enough, at the last second..at our whitts end he came through for us.
The interesting thing is that, more often than not, even those who care not to admit, find themselves asking for Gods help when the rubber hits the road. But you ask that person when things are calm and collective "where is God now", so many times i've heard "oh i don't believe in God".
I guess it's just interesting where peoples' hearts are really at when it really counts.
I have to apologize but reading your blog i just found out about Harry. My heart goes out to his family, and i'm sure the climbers around the kootenay area will be praying for them (his family and friends).
God has a purpose. Sometimes, well actually most times we have no idea what his plan is. Most times, not knowing, a huge ammount of frustration drives us batty, but i know that's where faith comes. "We are to have faith in the things that we can't see, not the things in which we can see" - Jesus.
Faith is so hard to grasp when we don't understand, but i suppose the peace i receive just knowing that God is in control, is enough to understand that his plan is Perfect. And that with anything, good or bad, he will use it for amazing things.
"We should be so one with God that we don't need to ask continually for guidance."
-Oswald Chambers
Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship.
I know this is a bunch of ranting, but for some reason i felt i should write this.
Look forward to any reply.
Best,
Gordon McArthur
3 comments:
Hi Gordon, thanks for your comment--tracked you down here.
I think people most often find belief in a single God when they're up against it. This isn't really fair to God or them, sort of like signing a deal on a new car after just wrecking your old one in front of a dealership, grin. There's a legal term for this sort of relationship, something about duress. So it doesn't surprise me that people "find god" when things get hectic, but that's not a very good argument for the existence of God or divine car dealerships.
I do find a lot of enjoyment in this very cool world we live in. I don't feel the need to ascribe this world to Jesus or any of the other popular dieties, it just is what it is and that's enough. I do believe in religious freedom (or freedom to do whatever sorts of "weird" things we want to including climbing, now there's an "irrational" belief...). No real point to this, but I would hope that our common ground as humans attempting to live morally would be more important than our chosen gods or lack thereof. And that civil discussion would always trump violent ideology--the world has really had enough of that despite it's on-going popularity.
Play safe enough.
WG
PS--cool ski trip! Makes me jealous, nice report, that's what it's all about.
Amen. The last couple years has been weird for me getting my head game together too. And good blog by the way, way to stick with it even though it doesn't look like you get much feedback.
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