I love this song by Robbie Williams:
Send someone to love me
I need to rest in arms
Keep me safe from harm
In pouring rain
Give me endless summer
Lord I fear the cold
Feel I'm getting old
Before my time
As my soul heals the shame
I will grow through this pain
Lord I'm doing all I can
To be a better man
Go easy on my conscience
'Cause it's not my fault
I know I've been taught
To take the blame
Rest assured my angels
Will catch my tears
Walk me out of here
I'm in pain
As my soul heals the shame
I will grow through this pain
Lord I'm doing all I can
To be a better man
Once you've found that lover
You're homeward bound
Love is all around
Love is all around
I know some have fallen
On stony ground
But Love is all around
Send someone to love me
I need to rest in arms
Keep me safe from harm
In pouring rain
Give me endless summer
Lord I fear the cold
Feel I'm getting old
Before my time
As my soul heals the shame
I will grow through this pain
Lord I'm doin' all I can
To be a better man
As I listen to those words I feel that God has already answered my prayer. I have those arms and they provide comfort in times of anxiety and discomfort - they allow me to move on and "be a better man".
Sometimes I wonder what the Gospel is all about. When you examine its essence, reconnection with God, His creation and our fellow man for sure. However although I know I need to walk a life of faith in God in order to be able to connect to Him, presently I’m not convinced that the only way that life can be accessed is through the story in the New Testament. Sometimes it just doesn’t resonate.
The idea that I have an insurmountable problem of missing-the-mark in terms of connecting with God just doesn’t ring true for me. Yes I need to live a life of faith like Abraham but the supporting evidence of my depravity such that I cannot access that life without the sacrifice of the Christ seems, frankly, made up, a self-referential control system, a myth taken out of context.
I can see that for some that the idea of the substitution of Christ for them might lead them to a life of faith but it’s just not the only way. I just don’t buy into the idea of a metaphysical transaction. It doesn’t ring resonate with anything else in my life. So I question its validity. It strikes me that to make that myth exclusive might lead to a close-minded and ultimately legalistic system unable to impact humanity effectively to bring about the Kingdom of God. Oh that sounds familiar doesn’t it?
So I am left wondering if the “Gospel” actually adds anything to the honest pursuit to “be a better man”. I don't know. At this point in time I just don't know.
2 comments:
Funny thing is, I don't think the New Testament story itself pretends to say the final word on the "gospel". Jesus never used final, packaged statements to describe it. He often used imagery and metaphors and stories to sort of get people moving in the right direction so they could discover it for themselves. Perhaps limiting it to the NT would be a gross betrayal of its essence? Perhaps a life of discovering what it means to be a better man is a natural component of the gospel? That sounds like "good news" to me.
It does doesn't it... *smile* DM
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