Faith in an Age of Skepticism

I love to read stories. I confess that I don't particularly enjoy classic novels. I am more of a best-seller reader. If the book is about spies or international intrigue, I will knock it out in a couple of days. I love the way that you can become engrossed in the book, experiencing the world from the pages. I love how the characters become real to you. A good novel does that, it makes the people and situations seem real.

I think that this is why it is so hard for many people to read the Bible. What happens is that we forget that, unlike our favorite novel, these people are in fact real. The Bible is not based on a true story--it is a true story. Sure, there are several genres of literature, such as poetry or parable, but the stories happened and the people were there.

Sometimes I like to think about the people who were behind the scenes. While we know a lot about Moses, Aaron, or pharoah, what was life like for the little guy. What was life like for an Israelite father who was trying to raise his two kids? What was life like for someone whose name we don't know, but lived through the things that we now recognize as the Exodus?

My guess is that they were fairly skeptical about all that was going on. We see quite a bit of grumbling from the people, and it makes sense when you consider their less than secure circumstances. I would assume that the group was fairly mixed. Some people were devout, others may have even left the camp at night to go back to Egypt.

Sometimes I wonder if the Exodus would work today. I'll be honest, it took a lot of faith to leave Egypt--faith in Moses, in God, and in the whole idea of a Promised Land. That kind of faith is harder to find today, and my generation is a big part of that. Recently I was talking with someone about how people a couple generations ago often just took things on faith. They were slow to question it, and they were generally more trusting. I don't see that happening much today.

My generation questions everything. I mean everything. We question commercials, preachers, news clips, scientific findings, content labels, philosophies, nutritional labels, and lessons about the Bible. We put everything to the test because too many things are simply untrue. We know this because there is so much information. There are entire websites dedicated to disproving things or setting the record straight. It takes about 20 seconds to look up something to see if it is true or not. We have a lot of information at hand. I read somewhere that one newspaper has more information about the world than a typical person in the nineteenth century would have had in their entire life.

So how do you speak truth to people who test everything? First, be honest. If it is complicated, say it is complicated. If there are multiple views, respect that there are multiple views. Second, speak about experience, your experience. Facts are not nearly as convincing as hearing what you have gone through or how you experienced something. Third, be patient. I will not be convinced without time to think it out. Teaching people truths about God or about life can be challenging, but again we are faced with being part of a process. We have to let others come to the conclusions.