stevenfrancis
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- Dec 28, 2012
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See......to me, anyway, this makes no sense whatsoever. I'm not sure you can "un-Jesus" once one is of the elect. At least not while being genuine with themselves. There is an over emphasis on the Christianity as an intellectual process in these kinds of posts. I'm a late life convert, of relatively high intelligence. While much of my conversion experience involved critical thinking and discernment, it became clear early on that there is much more to the Christian mystery than what I could garner from traditional study and thought. If open, (and I was/am), and prayerful, at some point the Holy Spirit kicks in to aid the process. I was just about there through the intellectual exercise. But my "amazing grace" experience was frankly more important in the end. I will say this though, that this doesn't mean we shouldn't test our experience. Discernment and study are ongoing. They are just not as important as DOING Christianity. That is DOING agape love.
Whatever it may seem like to you, I promise you that no true believer is "playing the faith card". We have been given a gift. One that is available to all who seek it with an open heart and mind. We all put stumbling blocks up to the supernatural elements because of skepticism and cynicism. These are culturally ingrained in modernity and post-modernity, to the point where those who are recipients of faith are looked upon with suspicion at a minimum, and contempt in some cases. This is not the fault of the one who has accepted their gift of faith. It is available to ALL. Even the most cynical and skeptical through prayer, openness, study, fasting, meditation can be joined with the Christ. There are many paths to do so. Mine actually involved a lot of reading, critical thinking, testing theological ideas etc.. I had to do this for quite a while. At some point though, I knew that because of the nature of what I was studying that I would need to pray and meditate on all of the information.
The intellectually driven run the risk of looking down on their brothers and sisters or thinking themselves elite for the very reason of their own cynicism and skepticism. It is easy to allow these useful tools to become prominent in our spiritual search, and forget that in the end, it is a search of the spirit. We are challenged to tap into something outside of ourselves, and allow ourselves to trust in that something until that trust becomes faith, as we approach the seemingly unreasonable, with reason and openness, (faith and reason), we will be answered.
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