The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The longer I live the less I know for sure. In my earliest years I had a lot more answers than I do now. Things were absolutely black and white, right or wrong, yes or no, in or out, but a lot of that has changed. I now find myself uncomfortable with sweeping generalities, you know, neat little categories and well-defined classifications. People cannot be squeezed into pigeon holes, they are far more complex than most of us are willing to admit. Sometimes Christians are good at building rigid walls out of dogmatic stones, cemented together by the mortar of traditions. We erect these walls in systematic circles, then place each within our over-simplified, ultra-inflexible ÒpositionÓ. We program ourselves not to think but ot say the ÒrightÓ things and respond the ÒrightÓ way. Our concept remains undisturbed and secure since no challenging force is ever allowed over the walls. Occasionally, however, a strange thing happens - a little restlessness springs up ÒwithinÓ the walls. A few ideas are challenged. Questions are entertained. Alternative options are then released. Talk about a threat! Suddenly our super protected, clich-ridden answers donÕt cut it. Our over-simplified package offers no solution. The stones start to shift as the mortar cracks. Two common reactions are available to us. One, we can maintain the status quo ÒpositionÓ and patch the wall by resisting change with rigidity. Or two, we can openly admit ÒI do not knowÓ as the wall crumbles. Now, some changes do pull us away from scripture. If so, those changes must definitely be avoided. But letÕs be absolutely certain that we are standing on scriptural foundation, not traditional sand. We have a changeless message - Jesus Christ, but He must be proclaimed in a changing, challenging era. The thinking person deserved an intelligent and sensible answer based on scriptural insights. Socrates once said: ÒThe unexamined life is not worth living.Ó If weÕve stopped thinking and started going through life with unexamined motions, then we have really stopped living and have started existing.
