Gravitational Cognisance:

Anyone who has watched cartoon will be familiar with characters walking off high places and continuing their progress in mid-air until they realise solid ground has gone as, looking down, the begin to plummet to the ground. We may find a parallel between Wile E Coyote and those who have lost the solid ground of their Christian faith. They continue walking as if they're on solid ground until something causes them to look down and then . . .  Whoosh . . .  Satan-like they plummet out our sight and are lost forever.

Some manage to never look down, they keep plodding on in the hope that they will have one of those Damascus road experiences or be hit by a bolt of lightning and so live out their lives of obedient drudgery when all it needs is for them to encounter and engage with their doubt! It is this that makes me think that doubt is one of the most excellent things we have in the arsenal of our faith.

And if doubt is one of our greatest gifts then one of the greatest curses has to be the loss of meaning that has been supposedly gifted to us by postmodernity. I say 'supposedly' because it has always been with us throughout all the ages. Those generations who have known the price of everything and the value of nothing, the many good men who have failed to act (regardless of the reason) and the valueless faith that imposes no standards to demands that we keep - this I that of which we speak.

The tension between getting all the good stuff (forgiveness, approbation, affirmation. acceptance, etc.) without having to believe 'all the ****!'* (absolutes, commandments, rules, standards, etc.) is an ever present reality. This is the bottom line for many and shapes and makes their faith life. No surprise because, when it comes down to it for we are like little children who want the sweeties but baulk at having to eat the cabbage (or whatever your dread vegetable happens to be), aren't we?

It is here that some cling to religion (rules and absolutes) whilst others turn to ritual (bells, smells and tat) and others still turn to inclusivity and freedom from restrictions (the 'God wants you to be happy' approach).

Whenever I encounter this area, personally or in others, I find myself coming back to Matthew 21.44 and the words that 'Whoever falls upon this rock will be broken and those upon whom it falls will be crushed.' Doubt needs to be be broken by recognising the thin air upon which the doubter is standing and, having acknowledged it, addressing and remedying it. Denial of doubt is death (spiritual and sometime physical too) and has no place in the Christian faith - we need to encourage doubt, for otherwise we push it underground to creep, cancer-like, behind the scenes just before we notice the weight-loss (and there are many emaciated Christians out there) that heralds the slide into being departed. Early prevention comes through checking for the signs and responding when they are found.

Have a look at your feet and see whether they are are solid ground or about to lead you into the plummet that is terminal decline.

Remember: Christianity demands that you do not leave your brain at the door! 


*A quote from one of those trendy clerics with which we are so blessed with these days!