Why I am a Christian

So I believe in God but why am I a Christian?

I am a Christian because, through Christ I see a down to earth God who is relevant to our everyday lives; who accepts us in spite of our faults and limitations but points us towards the people we could and should be.

That is a short answer. A longer answer has to begin by acknowledging that I am a product of my culture and upbringing. It is a point non believers are quick to make and that most Christians would freely and quickly acknowledge. For me it reinforces the fact that I am a Christian not through any merit of my own but  through the grace of God. It isn't something I have earned it is something I was given and am called to respond to.

Whilst acknowledging  a debt to my upbringing there were choices involved. If religious faith is a product of brain washing, as atheists are apt to claim, you'd have to conclude that the church is particularly bad at it. Suffice it to say that many, of my contemporaries who had a similar upbringing to me are not believers.

I did not come from a particularly Christian family. My father was a lapsed Catholic who I only recall going to church for weddings and funerals and my mother a nominal C of E who seldom went to church either. As children we were sent rather than taken to Sunday school. We lived on a succession of military bases and I was exposed to a variety of denominations and styles of worship. I think what it gave me was a curiosity about religion and a desire to seek God out for myself. I have had an in and out relationship with the church, that I'll return to in a later post, but I have always been drawn to the person and character of Jesus as he leaped out at me from the scriptures. I've struggled at times to reconcile the Christ of the gospels with the organised church but it was this for me that made him all the more real.

The Christ of the gospels seemed to say, 'Look, there is organised religion and it can give a satisfaction of sorts but it is all about outward appearances. I'm telling you it is really about what is on the inside. It's easy to feel holy and self righteous but what are you really like? Are you in truth a loving person or are you judgemental and unforgiving condemning others for faults you dare not acknowledge in yourselves."

And yet this same Christ who judged by that high standard had another message which was, "You have your faults and will never be perfect but I love you anyway. It is not right for all your wrong doing to go unpunished but I will take the punishment on myself. I'll take the punishment so you can go free. You have failed and you will doubtless fail again but I am offering you another chance."

The very fact that, in Jesus, the Christian God came down to earth gives meaning and importance to our lives. Our faith is not about a once given set of rules it's about living the lives we have been given engaging  with God and one another and learning more about ourselves, the people we can potentially be and God's Kingdom, the world as it will be and has begun to be where God's influence prevails.

Jesus is God for our everyday lives but we can also glimpse, through him, the connectedness with God's wider purpose; withdrawing as he does for time of quiet reflection; seeking God in contemplative prayer and through him we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promptings of love and truth in our hearts that if heeded can take us to a better future.

I am a Christian because I am drawn to the person of Christ. I respect people of other faiths and religions and am confident that they are in some way part of God's purpose but it is through Christ I get a glimpse of God's Kingdom and, though I wriggle, go astray, lose the route and go up all kind of blind alleys I will continue to seek his way.