When I was a young boy, one of the most profound pieces of
advice my father ever gave to me was this:
Don’t form an opinion on someone based on the words of someone else.
For 20 odd years, I enjoyed playing cricket with various clubs.
Every Saturday morning, I can still remember the smell of the fly repellent,
the fresh dew on the grass at 8am, and chatting and laughing with my buddies.
The regular butterflies in my stomach in some ways still haunt me as I prepared
to pad up to face the first ball of the day. Whether I was out in the middle
batting, bowling or fielding, or whether I was sitting with my team mates
waiting to bat, cricket was great fun.
I recall my very first game at Llandilo against Nepean Youth
Club. They were formidable opponents. We fielded first. When it was time to
bat, I pleaded with Mr Hadler to let me open the batting. He accepted. I
remember racing out to the middle to face the first ball. On a score of 1 run,
my team mate hit the ball straight back to the bowler, and in my haste to be on
strike, I started running. Much like most of my running between the wickets in
my grade days, I was run out from an utterly suicidal attempt at a run. Ha! Those
were fond memories.
With these pleasant memories, playing cricket for many years
also exposed me to the dark side of the sport. It wasn’t the actual game that
was ‘dark’, but rather the politics of the selections and so on. The politics
of the game brought the worst out in people. Good mates would turn on one
another, dragging down people who had nothing to do with the disagreement.
I can still recall the time when the Penrith Junior Cricket
Association elected a new President, Mr Clarence. He revolutionised many
aspects of the club, drawing new sponsors, innovations and interests in the
club. These changes allowed more boys who did not make the first XI to be
involved in representative cricket. I benefitted from this when I was in the
Under 13s, playing in the IDCA comp that year.
With the revolutionary changes, though, came the opponents.
Many people had negative things to say about Mr Clarence, some perhaps may have
been warranted. Though, even when I was inclined to agree with the petty gossip,
my father, however, was very quick to redirect me to think about the interactions
I had had with Mr Clarence as opposed to blindly following what other people
had to say about him. “Clarence seems alright to me”, my dad would say. “Don’t
listen to what others say, Rhys”.
We humans have a nasty knack of blindly believing and following
others. A great deal of the time, we are persuaded by the petty, agenda laden
gossip, aimed at turning one against another. The poison tends be proceeded by
a gentle and seductive, “You won’t believe what I heard…”. It’s in our
workplaces, our clubs, all over the media and into our homes.
Now, take that poison we’ve all been dosed up with and consider
how much of it has persuaded you and your perceptions about God. I wonder how
much you truly know about what Christianity actually teaches about God? I
wonder whether you have ever considered who God is and what He desires. We all
have some theological understandings, from believing in an all-powerful deity,
to believing in not believing in a deity, pardon my play on words. But, just
how much have your perceptions about the divine been shaped by the unguided and
misleading popular media. I wonder whether you’ve based these beliefs about God
on what someone else has said rather than just listening to God himself.
One of the most provocative stories in the Bible is about the
interaction between God and his first people, Adam and Eve. After crafting all
that exists, God carefully and wonderfully created humans in his image (Genesis
1:26). God then placed the first humans into an abundant paradise, filled with
sumptuous treasures. God personally related with them, protecting and providing
for their every need.
As the story progresses, we meet the ultimate chaos agent, the
serpent. Rather than being a faithful member of God’s creation, the serpent
worked towards forming a wedge between God and his image bearers. The serpent, just
like the gossipers we encounter day after day, whispered the most manipulative
words – “Did God really say; He is holding you back from reaching your
potential; You can be just like God!” Rather than trusting in the integrity of
God first hand, the first humans rejected Him in open rebellion. They based
their opinion of God on what someone else had told them.
To not know God is a product of our rebellion. To not seek to
know God is an outworking of our rebellion. Ignorance, as they say, is bliss,
but ignorance does not hold up in court. This world and everything in it
belongs to God. You and I belong to God and a day of reckoning has been set
when we will give an account for the way we have lived the life God has given
us. This life only has meaning when we are plugged into following God’s plans
and purposes. But how can one do this without knowing God and what He wants?
Rather than rely on what God has said about himself, we tend to rely on what
others have said about Him. I’m sure you’ve heard all too often, “God wouldn’t
care if I did this”, or “God isn’t like that”. Honestly, how would you know
whether God would care or what he’s like if you don’t even know Him?
My father’s wise words still ring true. Rather than go to
someone else to know about God, a more productive thing to do would be to ask
yourself what does God actually say about himself. Christians, for two thousand
years, have believed that the Bible is the inspired words of God. They believe
that if you want to know God, then reading the Bible is the answer as in it,
God reveals himself through them, ultimately pointing to Jesus, God incarnate.
So, finally, what’s my point? The Bible has a huge amount to
say about God and our relationship with Him. The challenge I have for you is do
you actually know what the Bible has to say about God? Have you ever sat down
and actually studied it? Are you going to take ‘my dad’s wise advice’ and take
God for face value, or will you rely on what others have said about Him?
Psalm 100 - Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture….. For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Have a Merry Christmas
