A Faith-Challenged believer
On the previous post, I thought more about it, and asked myself, why? One event brought my faith into a tailspin.
It began innocently enough. A casual conversation with my brother-in-law... I told him about a friend who experienced a miraculously successful radical surgical procedure for an otherwise-determined terminal cancer. I mentioned how prayers and faith were answered.
My brother-in-law's response was "someday science will explain away religion" and "we will someday understand the mental link to healing". I have heard this before from my wife's family.
On the outside, I made my best "loving response", but inside I was totally losing my cool, wishing to grab him and shake him. The frustration of witnessing my in-law's abject denial of anything they cannot touch and see (or read about in a psychology journal) got so intense that I lost my sense of Grace. Satan was at my elbow in a moment... what if what my brother-in-law said was true? Is my relationship with God just in my head?
I doubted, even when I knew better.
I am better now. It was all emotion - frustration, anger, fear. A little time in solitary prayer, repentance, accepting the current Grace offered, listening to the talks, was all I needed to reconnect. Praise Him!
It began innocently enough. A casual conversation with my brother-in-law... I told him about a friend who experienced a miraculously successful radical surgical procedure for an otherwise-determined terminal cancer. I mentioned how prayers and faith were answered.
My brother-in-law's response was "someday science will explain away religion" and "we will someday understand the mental link to healing". I have heard this before from my wife's family.
On the outside, I made my best "loving response", but inside I was totally losing my cool, wishing to grab him and shake him. The frustration of witnessing my in-law's abject denial of anything they cannot touch and see (or read about in a psychology journal) got so intense that I lost my sense of Grace. Satan was at my elbow in a moment... what if what my brother-in-law said was true? Is my relationship with God just in my head?
I doubted, even when I knew better.
I am better now. It was all emotion - frustration, anger, fear. A little time in solitary prayer, repentance, accepting the current Grace offered, listening to the talks, was all I needed to reconnect. Praise Him!
posted by nai at 6:10 AM
2 Comments:
Ahh yes, nothing like an unbeliever to pour cold water on our faith!
Glad you came out of that through prayer and conversations.
Hang in there!
Everyone has faith, even your bro-in-law. He obviously has faith in Science! He has no grounding for his claim about a future scientific discovery, but somehow it seems so scientific!
We all disturb the air with our absurd opinions. I was encouraged by your concern for holding on to grace.
And I like how God answered Job after he was flapping his gums:
"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?" Job 38:2
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