I believe

Who will fill his shoes? 

That was one of my initial thoughts as I was driving to work the morning of February 21st and learned of the passing of the Reverend Billy Graham.  Say or think what you want about evangelists and televangelists, but I believe Reverend Graham was the real deal.  In his 99 years on earth, he was one of his generation's most prolific voices for Christianity, preaching live to over 100 million people and millions more via television, radio, and internet.  Multiple thousands of sermons were preached during his lifetime, but always with a similar simple message... Jesus saves!  Countless individuals embraced faith in Jesus Christ through Billy's preaching.

In 1994, as a student at the University of Akron and already a follower of Christ, I had the privilege of attending a Billy Graham Crusade at the Cleveland Municipal Stadium with some of my college friends.  Below is one of the messages preached at that event.

Reverend Billy Graham, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, 1994

I believe his death leaves a large void in our world.  My thought, "who will fill his shoes", came with the reminder that spreading the message of Christianity is, in some way, the responsibility of every believer, not just the Billy Grahams of the world.  I don't believe all are meant to be as outspoken as Reverend Graham.  But, as a follower of Christ, I believe our words and our deeds should bear evidence of the faith we profess.

That reminder prompted me to dust off this post that has been sitting dormant for over two years.  I'm not very adept at speaking about my faith.  But, I have wanted, for some time, to put my thoughts into writing as a bog post.  This seemed like a good opportunity to do that.

My main goal for writing Backside of Forty has always been a memoir, of sorts, for my kids.  I want them to be able to remember some of the great memories we made over the years.  I want my kids to be able to read just how important and valuable each of them are to me.  And, when they are at an age to appreciate it, I hope they will read and understand some of the deeper thoughts that their dad struggled to share through his rambling and repetitive spoken words, or his sometimes short-tempered, swift-judgement parental bumbling. 

In the area of faith, I feel as though I have somehow failed my kids.  My faith in Jesus Christ is fundamental in my life.  But, have I failed to exemplify that in a way that compels them to follow in those steps?  I fear I have.

Recent circumstances have caused me to decide that it would be wrong to try to keep kids in church purely by parental authority, once they are at an age to decide.  "As long as you are under my roof, you will go to church" may work for some, but in many cases, it only causes resentment toward parents and toward God.  The dynamics of my family's views on faith have shifted over the years.  Although, unified in faith at the time of marriage and considering it our foundation on which to build a family, various life circumstances have caused both Jen and myself to reassess our faith and we have landed at different conclusions.  Because my home is just one part of their now divorce-complicated life, I felt the need, in the past year, to allow my two older sons to express their faith, or lack thereof, in a way that is genuine to themselves.  To my sadness (but not surprise), although they are pretty good kids, God is not a priority in their lives at present.  However, with at least with one of them, I sense that I earned some respect as a dad for my choice, and I feel I have a more open platform to speak of my faith than if I had forced them to pretend to care against their will.  I can only hope that the passing of time will cause every member of my family to return to the faith that united our family during its earlier years.

For this reason, I wanted to record the tenets of faith on which I stand, so that this small piece of interent real estate that is my blog can contain an anchor, should my kids someday need it in the storms of life.  This is not a canned creed or a denominational statement of faith.  In my own words, these are my absolutes.  My truth.  This is what I believe...

• I believe in one true God eternal, creator of all mankind and the universe in which we reside.
• I believe everyone should, at some point, wrestle with the question of the origins of life and the existence of God.
• I believe the complexities of the natural world far exceed man's attempts at scientific explanation of their origin, making man's explanations inconceivable, and to me, unbelievable.
• I believe that mere man cannot explain, nor was ever intended to explain, the origin of God, or the origin of life.  For, if we could explain it, we are exalted to the status of God, and He reduced to the status of man.
• I believe original creation was perfection, designed and formed for mankind to enjoy perfect fellowship with each other and with God.
• I believe mankind was created with a free will to obey or disobey God, because forced obedience is just puppetry.
• I believe original mankind chose disobedience because they selfishly wanted just a little bit more.
• I believe any mere human that ever breathed would have done the same. I own my selfish nature... how about you?
• I believe that choice forever drove a wedge of separation between sinful mankind and holy God. 
• I believe that wedge of separation included the removal of perfection from creation and the result is a version of creation winding down to an eventual end, where good things can inexplicably happen to bad people and bad things can inexplicably happen to good people.
• I believe that the events of this world can no more be explained by man than can the origins of life.
• I believe God is in full control of everything but allows the good and the bad as a natural consequence of mankind's selfish choice to disobey.
• I believe God unselfishly loves mankind and made a way of redemption back to His perfect creation.
• I believe in a literal Heaven, where redeemed mankind will be with God in restored perfection.
• I believe, conversely, in a literal Hell, originally intended for Satan, an actual being and the adversary of God, and his angels.
• I believe the soul of mankind lives eternal, and mankind's final resting place in Heaven or Hell is determined solely by accepting or rejecting God's plan of redemption. 
• I believe the one true God eternal exists in 3 forms; God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the triune God, the mystery of which is no more explainable by man than is the origin of life.
• I believe the earthly god-man, Jesus Christ, was divinely conceived by the Holy Spirit within the womb of a common virgin, named Mary.
• I believe Jesus was divinely fully God and fully man, and lived a sinless earthly life of 33 years.
• I believe Jesus died an agonizing death of crucifixion on a Roman cross, where His blood was shed for the sin of all mankind.
• I believe Jesus' body was placed in a borrowed tomb under Roman guard.
• I believe three days later, Jesus bodily rose from the grave under His own divine power, proving He is truly God and victorious over the power of death.
• I believe Jesus ascended back to heaven as an advocate for redeemed man.
• I believe the Gospel... that mankind is redeemed from our sin to have a relationship with holy God through an active, individual choice to: Admit that you are a sinner and there is no amount of good that you can do to appease a holy God; Believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins; and, Confess your sins to God and make Jesus the Lord of your life.
• I believe, having personally made this decision, I should strive to live in a way that pleases God... not to earn favor, but to show gratitude for the grace He has extended to me through Jesus' redeeming death.
• I believe all of this by a simple faith which is supported by Biblical history and my view of the natural world around me.