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In Reply to: What happened to your faith? posted by Acheick on April 16, 2002 at 08:16:50:
your post raises such profound issues, i've read it several times before even thinking about a reply. it kind of goes along a little bit w/ the "where is God in all this ?" thread on ndn.t.r.'s post about everything being "individual" and your emphasis here on the "personal" seem to me to be a strong reaction against the groupthink experienced in the fam.
your point about the rebirth you experienced in going to college and reactivating your mind is i think something many of us can relate to. (for me it was reading...nothing broke the hold of mo-theology over me as much as reading far more informed, thoughtful, and insightful Christian writer's on a wide variety of subjects!! "waters in the desert!") But for me, the aversion to the bible was just the opposite...i desperately wanted to search the scriptures to see if these things were so! i found the new perspectives offered by authors both classic and contempory, rather enriched my love and admiration for "the book"...even if it also made me a little less certain on what i believed on many issues.
in this regard, i think one of the biggest changes to my faith is that it has been "set free" to become more of a running conversation" w/ God, fluid and alive, rather than a daily, teeth gritting selfeffort to make myself believe the way i was supposed to believe. the conversation for me is pretty open ended, w/ God(where it gets the MOST personal!) , w/ writers new and old, w/ my wife and family, friends, cyberpeople like you (ha!)...not to mention the flowers and the trees etc.picture cleopas and buddy walking on the road to emmaus, wondering what the deal was w/ the crucifixion...and all of a sudden this "stranger" joins them, opens the scriptures to them in a new way causing their "hearts to burn within"..and then it changes to a new level of experience for them when "this guy" breaks bread w/ them...(lk.24:13-35.) it is all there...the initial disillusionment, the conversation w/ a friend trying to make sense of their experience, the fresh insight to clear up their biblical misunderstandings, and the powerful new revelation of Jesus! AND, the mind and the HEART!
(i never really saw all that before... i kinda like it! ha!)
