I am beginning to see this pattern emerge in people’s spiritual lives where we all come to a point where the truth, or what we believe to be the truth, has to be validated. Or perhaps it may even be the case that some doctrine we believed to be true becomes invalidated by experience.
For me, I see the pattern the clearest in those I encounter who have or are involved in ministry. Whether on staff of a ministry or leading a ministry life has this crazy way of testing what we believe. Imagine the man of God truly seeking God, truly preparing his messages in prayer, truly wanting the best for his family and congregation, but life throws him a curveball. Perhaps it’s a child who has a drug addiction exposed. Perhaps it’s an unwed daughter’s pregnancy. Sometimes the curveball comes as a terminal illness or catastrophic financial mistake. Sometimes the curveball comes from those he loves in the form of gossip and slander and in fighting in the congregations. Whatever the case, whether in ministry or not, we can see that life can and will test our doctrine. It will test the truth and lies of religion.
My favorite Christian writer T. Austin Sparks said, “(inward revelation of the truth) comes by the way of great pain. You get a thing revealed to you as truth, perhaps something about the Cross of Christ, or victory over Satan, and you think you know it, and you say, "This is beautiful!" And you begin to talk about it, and it is not very long before something happens – your circumstances are touched. Now you go down with this truth, down into the vortex of awful agony, right down to the gates of hell, your being is upheaved right from the very bottom, and all the time there is the question – "Will that truth hold good?" Is it going to work? And when you have got down as far as you can go, the flesh elements and the self-elements have been dealt with, and you grimly hold on to the Lord in this matter of victory – then it comes out, you have tested it right to the very bottom of your being – that thing has become you, and then you can go to others in their grim conflict and their darkness, and say, "I know – I know this thing, and I know God is faithful, I know the victory." You have got a mighty emphasis on your knowledge, it is a thing about which you have no doubt, because you have gone down into the depths with it, and proved it down there, and by the very pain the thing has been proved.”
The religious often freak out when they encounter someone questioning their faith. They can’t stomach someone exploring alternatives. But reality is we all have to have the validation of the truth. It is in this validation that the relationship to God is formed. It is painful because to validate God’s truth happens at the very end of ourselves, where all human efforts are exhausted, where only God can act… here we discover God’s truth. My pastor quoted someone a few weeks back. He said, “We never know God is all we need, until God is all we have.”
I am learning to find great comfort in the encounters with former “Christians” seeking the truth. Time has proven that Christ always draws them to Himself. I see them return to what looks like the place they left, but with new perspective. A perspective of truth. They return to an irrevocable gift and call of God with kingdom perspective and not man’s perspective. They return having lived the truth.
More importantly they/we return understanding that it is not only ok, but necessary for others to take the journey to the truth. The agony, the upheaval, the rock bottom are all there for our good and by God’s love and design. Religion, doctrine, beliefs don’t save, God does. “Is His power limited?”
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