There have been a few times in the last 10 years of preaching that after a sermon, my lovingly honest wife will say to me, “What was that?” or “What was that about?” It hasn’t happened often, but it has happened. Sunday’s 11:00 sermon was one of those times. It was not recorded, so what anyone heard is what they heard. I’m not sure what she or anybody else heard. It was not the sermon I had prepared and presented at 8:30 or 9:30. They’re never exactly the same, but usually basically the same. At the 11:00 worship, it was an impromptu sermon.
What was on my mind was about how something can happen, such as the discovery of a half dozen habitable planets in another part of the solar system, and that same event helps some people’s faith deepen and at the same time causes others to find it more difficult to believe in the existence of God. The same thing goes for tragedies. The same tragedy can draw one person closer to God and drive another person further away from Him. Prosperity can be a faith builder or a stumbling block. The same can be said for poverty.
Joan Chittister wrote something to the effect of, “It is way too easy to spend your entire life studying/thinking about a spiritual life without ever actually developing one.” If you have a firm foundation of faith that’s built on Christ, anything that happens, good or bad, seems to affirm and build upon that faith. If you just dabble in spirituality or hang out at the edges of faith, anything that happens just confuses you more.
I invite you to listen to this Steven Curtis Chapman song that encourages you to dive in.
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Steven Curtis Chapman
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