One of the most interesting aspects of how we have experienced this past year has been how individualistically we tend to think. This is related to how we come to know what we know about the world, about life, and even about God. Our basic epistemology is "I know it because I experienced it." Related to this is a skepticism toward those considered experts or authorities on various subjects. So we have people say/think things like, "It doesn't matter what the epidemiologists say! I saw on YouTube that the whole thing is a hoax!" And while that example may sound extreme, I do hear from various people that they have a hard time trusting the media, the government, big business, and even healthcare officials (we do call it the healthcare industry sometimes!). If we aren't going to trust others, whom will we trust? The final answer to that question is that we will trust ourselves. I will trust my own intuition, research, intellect, reason, and, yes, experience. I will be my guide. There is, after all, no one else.
Do you believe the Bible? Do you believe the Gospel, the Good News, that Jesus was born as a human being but showed the power and presence of God because He was also God? Do you believe that He lived, loved, helped, taught, and wowed? Do you believe He gave His own, innocent life, and that it was an injustice? Do you believe He came back from the grave? Can you believe Jesus did all that?
We can believe it, but we have to humble ourselves and take off our epistemological blinders to be able to do so. Our pride, and sometimes our pain, causes us to withdraw into our own experiences and opinions, and sometimes it really is to protect ourselves. I get it. But we can be honest about the fact that we do take things on faith all the time: yes, there really was a holocaust, a moon landing, and a place called Africa (I've never been there myself but I know people who say they have been).
But maybe the hardest things to take on faith include love. When someone says they love you, you have to have faith. You don't know what's going on in their minds or hearts. You can see some of their actions, but you may never know for sure. You have faith.
Jesus showed His love for us by coming to us, suffering with us, suffering for us, and overcoming the curse. You can believe it. And this truth changes our lives. And He is loving us today. He is with us in His Spirit. Day by day, through this season of Lent, ask Him to make His love for you and us more and more real. And to give you faith in His loving presence.
John 1:9–14 ESV
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
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