It was good for Paul and Silas.
It was good for the Hebrew children.
It was good for mother and father.
It’s good enough for me.
The venerable old gospel song dates back to 1873 and is still sung in tent revivals today. It seems to me we need to ask ourselves a question. Is it really? Is that old time religion still good enough for me? With all due respect to the Hebrew children, they weren’t much more than a generation removed from believing that God was the thunder and lightning. What else could they have believed 3000 years ago?
Science and technologies are available to us in the 21st century that are revealing a different picture of the universe, and who “He” is who created it. We need to be open to receive it. It will be difficult for those holding on to the faith of our fathers, but faith that isn’t open to change cannot be open to God.
Studies show that in the U.S., 60 percent of young people with a Christian background have stopped going to church. It’s not that they have lost interest in God. They have simply outgrown the god we expected them to believe in. My own sons are among them, even after a childhood of Christian schooling and Bible teaching. At the same time there has not been a time in our history when young people had a greater interest in spirituality - in knowing and living a vital, growing, and enriching faith. God is revealing himself to them in a way that involves “self realization” - exactly what Jesus modeled for us.
Fundamental beliefs of all religions have created separation and fear that threaten to destroy us. The good news is many of those beliefs are being corrected. A spiritual awareness is being born in man that, I believe, will save us. It may not feel comfortable right now, but it’s going to be okay. In fact, it is the beginning of something very good.
A story by C.S. Lewis explains it this way.
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace.”
We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn that it is God who is shaking them. He isn’t calling us back to old time religion. He is building a new faith from the ground up. Rotting floorboards and broken windows of ancient creeds have to be removed before it can start.
But don’t let your heart be troubled. The work has been underway since Jesus first said, “Follow me” - something, if we’re honest, we don’t do very well. We may trust him to save us when we die but he meant for us to follow his example and realize the spirit of God that lived in him is the same spirit of God that lives in us. Only when we accept that truth will we be able to follow him. Only then will we be able to do the things he did. And the best part is, when we find God in ourselves we will suddenly recognize him in each other. Only then will we be able to love them like Jesus told us to. It is a discovery that will change forever our experience of life on earth.
Maybe then we won’t have to look forward to a “better home a-waitin’ in the sky”?
