Hope on the Street

How many of us tried the New Year resolutions this year? Who has already given up?  If you didn’t do a resolution this year, I bet you have tried in the past at some point! So what happened? Even if you did persevere were you disappointed that your life was not turned around as you had hoped? Isn’t it all a bit quick and shallow? There is a new book out on Amazon called “ 52 Small Changes in One Year to a Happier Healthier You”. Books like this make it all sound so easy. Can we really believe it’s that simple to get to the happier and fulfilled you? We may think, ‘yes great’, but if we are honest we know deep down there must be deeper things in our lives that need examining. Isn’t it true that most of what we worry about, how we look and feel, our status in the world, are surface things and symptoms of bigger problems on the inside? What if we were to get to grips with inside stuff, attitudes and heart issues and the outside stuff no longer mattered, what people thought of us, how we looked etc.?

But change, is tough and challenging; most, if not all of us, would sooner put it off and make no decision or a different one to the one we know we should make. Human decision-making has been studied and it was found that decisions were often illogical and based on prejudice, oversimplification and insufficient information.

I was up early this morning and when I came downstairs in my pyjamas my dog Oscar was very bouncy and wanted to play. It was very cold outside so I let him out the back door and he rushed off, then stopped and turned around, looking so forlorn and sad when he realised I was not following. Oscar stood for ages in desperate hope I would come out. He wanted attention and love so bad. They say that a lot of what we do looking to get that attention, to feel good, to fill that hole inside. Someone once said that all of us have a God shaped hole trying to fill. What if the things we do this year are trying to do that?

Our choices make such a difference. In history there are many examples of choices having significant consequences:

1)    Consider the Second World War- one of the reasons that historians say that that Germany did not win the 2WW was because it only built 12 submarines at the start of the war. Before the war their experts said they needed at least 300 submarines to win but Hitler and others ignored that advice. Instead of subs the High Command built big ships instead (It was not until near the end of the war that the Germans had 300+ submarines operating and by then it was too late). Because of that mistake the Allies able to keep supplies coming in by ship.

2)    Another decision that made a difference: in 1907 a businessman called Arthur Scott had a big paper shipment returned by a customer who complained the paper was too hard and crinkly. Arthur could have got into a strop and thrown the paper out or took legal action, but instead he thought of another use for it. He cut it into strips and made first paper towels, which sold like hot cakes.

3) Some decisions are a mystery. Perhaps you are a Spiderman fan? Well, so far there have been three Spiderman films made so far and if that’s not enough they are going to make another one this summer! The latest film will have a different lead actor for Peter Parker, a guy called Andrew Garfield. Will it make money? Only time will tell!

Ever wondered about the decisions you’ve made and wished you could relive that choice over again?

In the film Sliding Doors, made in 1998 a woman makes a simple choice but what would have happened if she had chosen different? Here is a woman and her relationships shown from two alternative histories. In one she catches out her boyfriend cheating on her, in the other she does not. In one she finds love but is killed, in the other she is let down by love but may find true love but we never find out. It all turned on whether she caught a tube train or not- went through those sliding doors. Some decisions are so simple but they last for an eternity.

The key turning point for me in my life, my ‘sliding doors’, was the time I went to hear a speaker and a sentence from the Bible, something Jesus said stuck on my head. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” I realised I wanted to open the door to Christ, to trust he means good to me. I had been trying hard to change myself but that had not worked, outside changes are OK but what if I let him inside to change me? Is it God’s job to change us from the inside out and not all down to our efforts? What if I forgot the usual shallow resolutions, and looked deeper, for a purpose, to really trust God; open the door and ask what would he want for me? Eventually, I made that choice for God and I can’t imagine what my life would have looked like if I had chosen differently. God has made such a positive difference, giving me hope and purpose and bringing out the best. If you are someone who feels they want more from life, to find out about the love God has for you and who Christ is, check out our Facebook page www.facebook.com/hopenews and web site www.hopeonthestreet.org.uk. Lets talk. No pressure, we want to help if we can.

DOES GOD EXIST?

Wouldn’t it be good if there were the evidence? Maybe you are someone who thinks Christianity is all about “believing in spite of.” or “blind-faith”. I want to let you know that this is not the case, that there is evidence for God. Problem is, are you willing to examine it? If you are someone who sets their mind against the possibility of God existing then won’t any evidence for God be missed or explained away? It’s just like the person who refuses to believe that people have walked on the moon; no amount of evidence is going to change their mind. Not photographs of astronauts walking on the moon. Not interviews with the astronauts. Not moon rocks. This is because that person has already concluded that people cannot go to the moon, so his mind is closed. If you can we come to this short article with an open mind, then the following three short stories may help in considering the possibility of God’s existence.

1) Goldilocks Story. In the children’s story Goldilocks came across some chairs, bowls of porridge and beds? On each occasion she went for what was “just right” for her. Scientists call the distance of the earth from the sun as ‘just right’ or the Goldilocks Zone. The distance of the earth from the sun at 93 millions miles; the Earth remains this perfect distance from the sun while it rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 mph. It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly warmed and cooled every day. Any less distance and the earth would fry and any greater distance and the earth would freeze. Freeze, fry or just right points to a deliberate designer or creator at work.

Consider the following: the Earth…its size is perfect. The Earth’s size and corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of mostly nitrogen and oxygen gases, only extending about 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. If Earth were smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible, like the planet Mercury. If the Earth were larger, its atmosphere would also not sustain life. In addition, consider the Moon, it is the perfect size and distance from the Earth for its gravitational pull to be ‘just right’. The moon creates important ocean tides and movement so ocean waters do not stagnate, and yet our massive oceans are restrained from spilling over across the continents. Two other compelling reasons to indicate this was no chance but the work of a master designer, a creator.

2) Man on a Motorbike. Have you ever been driving when it has just got dark and seen another vehicle without lights? I was driving back from Dunstable the other evening and it had just got dark, suddenly this motorbike appeared out of nowhere! No lights or reflectors. I was shocked for a moment. It struck me that you don’t have to be able to see something in order for it to be there. I know this is self-evident but some people seem to think God would have to show himself before they will believe. But there are many things we accept and trust in our daily lives that cannot be seen and we don’t know the full facts. We trust because we see it works or we do not have the time or wherewithal to test it. For example, love and relationships, when we press a light switch, when we trust the bus or train to get us to work (assuming the driver is healthy and fit, that the vehicle is mechanically sound). So maybe it is OK to trust that God is there even if we can’t see him, lets instead look for the evidence or results of him being there. Scientists too have this problem; because they can’t see or prove God with an experiment they make the assumption God is not there and write him out of their theories. This is seen with the theory of how the universe began; they say it happened with one giant explosion of energy and light and call this the Big Bang. Some scientists feel they do not need to ask who was behind the Big Bang, but surely we must ask where the Big Bang came from as it must have been created by something or someone? Does that not point to some kind of creator or master designer? C.S. Lewis once wrote, “Science when it becomes perfect, will have explained the connection between each link in the chain and the link before it. But the actual existence of the chain will remain wholly unaccountable. We learn more and more about the pattern. We learn nothing about that which ‘feeds’ real events into the pattern. If it not God, we must at least call it Destiny–the immaterial, ultimate, one-way pressure which keeps the universe on the move.”(CS Lewis, God in the Dock, p.78-79).

3) Voice from Nowhere! I remember walking by the river in a place I used to live, Caversham, near Reading, and thinking what should I be doing with my life. I was between jobs and feeling lost. Suddenly I heard a voice cry out, “Go to Africa”. I was shocked for a moment and I wondered if it was heaven speaking, then I thought is there someone there? At that moment my friend jumped out from behind a tree! My friend was teasing me and thought that he would catch me out; he was over from Africa and getting recruits to go back with him. Even if my friend had not revealed himself I would not have taken the voice as from God without testing it, using the critical mind that God has given to think things through rationally. True Christianity is never about blind faith and the brain is bypassed somehow. The reality is the opposite, followers of Christ are encouraged to use their minds and examine the evidence. To test ideas and what they think is from God. Once we have done that then we to have faith and trust in God to look after us and that his plan for our lives is the best one; even better than our own plans. The New Testament accounts of Jesus’s life and death is full of evidence for any seeker of the truth feel confident in the resurrection. I am also confident in the Bible itself, as there is much evidence that the Bible we have today is very accurate to the one that was in circulation when Jesus lived and the writings about him were written within the lifetime of his followers or second-generation believers.  I find my confidence in the Bible as being written by honest authors because it shows many of the heroes of the stories as having many moral failures, some doubting, arguing and being jealous and self centred. The Bible is far from being a propaganda document, it shows all the participants at their best and worst, warts and all. The Bible even records that some of the followers of Jesus still doubted even after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. This leaves my in no doubt myself that true believers and not to follow in blind faith and that honest doubt is good; an open mind that seeks truth and looks for evidence is what God is looking for and he has left many clues and evidence. God wants us to think. Perhaps you are thinking if that is so why is it hard for me to hear him? Well I know from experience that God is speaking but we have to be listening.

So does God exist? Well examine the evidence with an open mind. Look at the world we live in created so wonderfully and at the ‘just right’ distance from the sun. Look at some of the unseen things that everyone takes for granted, the Big Bang who made that? Look at the evidence; use your mind, your doubts. Look at Jesus, who he is and what he did. Has there ever been anyone quite like him, the words he said, claims he made, and things he did as evidence to who he was. Not blind faith but faith seeking understanding. Evidence enough perhaps to start to relate to a God worth knowing.