Crisis Is Not a Contradiction

Mother Teresa's letters about her relationship with God have been published, and they have revealed a woman who served God faithfully yet had no sense of God's presence in her life. Time magazine says this revelation is a contradiction with her continued profession of faith.

Not all atheists and doubters will agree. Both Kolodiejchuk and Martin assume that Teresa's inability to perceive Christ in her life did not mean he wasn't there. In fact, they see his absence as part of the divine gift that enabled her to do great work. But to the U.S.'s increasingly assertive cadre of atheists, that argument will seem absurd

But this is no contradiction and not absurd at all because Christianity is no based on feelings but on convictions and trust in what we've been persuaded is true.  Feelings can accompany faith and sometimes they don't.  Most Christians go through dry times; some Christians rarely experience such feelings.  None of that changes the conviction that Jesus is the Savior and the trust we put in Him to reconcile us to God.

There are many things in life we do out of conviction, commitment, faithfulness even when our feelings aren't in it.  Marriage and parenthood are prime examples of this.  Feelings come and go; conviction and commitment endure and are the essence of our relationship with Jesus.

Perhaps the common misconception that faith is a sentiment fuels this misunderstanding of the nature of Mother Teresa's "crisis."  Fortunately, faith isn't a feeling.  And very often when Christians experience these crises of faith, they examine why they are a Christian and their commitment deepens.

Remember what C.S. Lewis said about such a Christian in the character of Screwtape to his nephew Wormword.  That is the most dangerous Christian of all.

The odd thing is that Christians are accused of being irrational, yet when someone goes through a crisis and reexamines their faith it's considered a weakness by the same people.  Doesn't such a reexamination offer counter evidence that Christians are mindless and blind?

Comments

[Kevin W]

>>“But to the U.S.'s increasingly assertive cadre of atheists, that argument will seem absurd”

The above is what’s absurd. It’s a catch-22; anything remotely Christian should be absurd to an atheist….so what? Or better…what’s new?

[Kevin W]

“Most Christians go through dry times; some Christians rarely experience such feelings. None of that changes the conviction that Jesus is the Savior and the trust we put in Him to reconcile us to God.”

This is great Melinda. Feelings don’t amount to much in the area of evidence and truth.

[Mark]

In light of the fact that one of Mother Teresa's key insights is we need to discover Christ in the "distressing visage of the poor" (And the King will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me') it seems almost fitting that as she embarked upon her mission to the poor of Calcutta she was deprived of the sensible consolations of prayer.

[Laughing Boy]

A piece by Sam Harris on ten so-called myths of atheism is making the rounds in my corner of the blogosphere and it contains the following:

"Do the positive experiences of Christians suggest that Jesus is the sole savior of humanity? Not even remotely — because Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and even atheists regularly have similar experiences."

He assumes that such 'positive experiences' are the Christian's primary (or perhaps only) evidence.

This is a great response to that erroneous assumption.

Thanks.