Dear Fellow Christian

I have a problem. It’s a big problem and I have decided to share it with you, because that’s what Christians do, pass their problems on to other, usually far holier and spiritually-aware, people in the hope of a simple answer.

Anyway, my problem is this…life. That’s it, life and faith…my two problems are…no, this is turning into a Monty Python sketch. I suppose a summary of the problem is too much life and not enough faith.

Life begins at six-ish in the morning, getting up, making packed lunches, sorting out battles over the shower, taking children to sundry educational establishments then getting to work on time. No room for God there then! I sometimes have some peace, during the holidays when nobody else gets up, but I use that time, not for deep spiritual thinking, but for making myself some breakfast for a change, and perhaps the luxury of a shower as well! Sorry God, but I need this time.

Then it’s work, and I have heard the talk about being a Christian in the workplace, and praying for the people around us, but that bloke in admin is such a pain! Always on about football, and how drunk he got the other night! I do try to pray for him, but it’s usually through gritted teeth! And the lady in accounts, now I know I’m a lot older, and married but, well, you can look at the menu, even if you’re not going to eat! She is so good-looking and dresses so well and…stop it! That’s the other thing, distraction. If I do get some time to myself that coincides with feeling a bit holy, the phone always rings and bang, we’re back on the mill.

Life is too full. When I get home it’s tea, and all the conscience-searching about whether I’m eating ‘ethically’ or ‘healthily’, the battle of the homework, helping them do it even though you shouldn’t but you want them to achieve more than you did, the News on TV – what would Jesus do or say about that? Then it’s bed. Now all the books, right back to Christopher Robin, say this is when we should say our prayers, and people at church often talk about their bible reading notes and the huge revelations they get from reading them. I do try, sometimes, but there are so many thoughts rattling around my head – family, work, bills, the noise the car was making on the way home – that sleep comes as a blessed relief.

And bible study, what’s that all about? I know that God inspired the writers, but he also inspired CS Lewis and St Francis of Assisi – He sent one of the Seraphim to him, which puts him above most people other than Jesus and Isaiah! So why spend precious time reading something that was written for a peasant peoples in the Middle East over 2000 years ago. There are times when it should be studied, and bed-time is not it! Actually I’m really struggling with the Bible. Most of it is completely irrelevant to our understanding of God – it’s all about the activities of the Jews. Okay, they were His chosen people, but they’re not anymore. If I understand things right, we all are. The Jews were the vehicle for bringing the world into a close loving relationship with God, then they were the people who were the home for the Messiah when it became necessary to send Him. And they killed Him thereby denying themselves any right to be called Special and condemning them to a life of paranoia and conflict. But most of the Old Testament is just their history, and there’s a limit on what we can learn from that, anymore than there is from the First World War or Gibbons’ ‘Decline and Fall…’.