The Difference God Makes in our Lives: Part 1

When I went to Law School in Halifax, I lived in an apartment of campus. When I moved in I discovered that a fellow living in the apartment directly above me was in law school and, indeed, was in all my class. As such, we became fairly close friend and every night around 9:00 pm when I had finished my studies, I would travel that extra floor to have a gab session with him. Now it just happened that one evening I was up with Ray watching a baseball game on a Saturday night. After it was over I said goodnight and got up to leave. Ray asked why I was going, that this was just the first game of a double header and that we had another 9 innings to look forward to. I told him that I had to go, that I had to get up for church tomorrow. That was when Ray made his big revelation. 

"I don't believe in God or organized religion" he said. "I believe in being kind to people, treating them right, not hurting the. I believe in trying to make the world a better place. When I worked I sponsored 3 foster children. But even if there was a God, I don't see why we need to go to church. Why do we need all those fancy buildings that are always in need of our money? I don't see why you need all those professional clergy, prayer books, organized services, rules and ritual that nobody understands. Why isn't it enough to just tell everyone to be nice to each other?"

Ray and I were good friends and we still maintain contact with each other today. During my life here on Earth I have met many nice people who are atheists or who only give religion lip service. They never darken the doorway of any church. They don't believe, or don't care, if there is a Supreme Being. They never pray; and in some cases I am not even sure if they know what it means to pray. Yet, they are good, caring, honest people, sensitive to the needs of others, generous with their time, their love, and their property. And then there are people whom I have met who come to church on a fairly regular basis who turn out to be small souled people. They are insecure, judgmental, and quick to find fault. However, that only makes the question even more pointed.

If religious belief and church attendance don't necessarily make you a good person, and nonattendance and rejection of religion don't necessarily make you a bad one, what is the point of being religious? What does the religious person get out of his or her faith that the nonreligious person has to do without? Is there something we would all be better off having, or something that only some people - the weak and the insecure, the spiritually inclined - need, and the rest of us can do without? For the religious mind and soul, there is no question about the existence of God, but the question, really for the atheist, agnostic, and Christian, is what difference does God and religion make in the way that we live our lives?

One thing that God gives us that has to be constantly taught and reinforced by our churches is a moral standard or code that is from an authority higher than ourselves. Not everything has a moral dimension to it. There is no moral dimension to how long a man's hair or a woman's skirt should be. But how we relate to other people and how we learn to control our basic instincts are subject for moral guidance. This is one thing that God has given us.

Without God, what makes something that I do wrong? The government? If that is the case then everything Hitler and Saddam Hussein did would have been perfectly okay. Hitler's government took great pains to make sure that their extermination of the Jews, the Gypsies, and other ethnic minorities was perfectly legal in Germany.

What makes something I do right or wrong? Science? We look to science for a lot of things and truly it has given us insights into the workings of God’s creation; however, all science can do is tell us how we could, not if we should. Science can tell us how a fetus can be aborted, not if it is right to do so. Science can tell us how to make nuclear bombs, but not if it is right t do so or if we should use them.

What makes something that I do wrong? It may be distasteful to you. It may hurt people who don't deserve to be hurt. But if I feel good doing it, if I see other people doing it, what makes it wrong?

The moral relativist, the person who believes that something is right if you feel that it is right, may feel free in his rejection of absolute standards of good and bad, but his freedom is the freedom of a sailor at sea without a compass. He is free to choose to travel in any direction he fancies, precisely because he has no way of knowing which direction the harbour lies in. Should we envy or pity that form of freedom?

God's law, the message and the example of Christ, doesn't make us divine, but it allows us to be human. It enables us to say “no” to our basic instincts and allows us to treat one another with love and respect no matter. When someone is down, God’s law compels us to take notice of their plight and then commands us to do something positive about it. God guides us to the realization that there are greater callings and higher satisfactions in life than making more money, partying on the weekend and constantly looking out for number. Just as this world would be unlivable if not for the law of gravity, so would this world of social relationships be unlivable if not for God's law - standards of conduct as being right and necessary even when we do not feel like living up to them.

God has given us this law, these standards of conduct, in two forms. The first is through direct and indirect revelation. Without pretending to understand the process, I believe that the authors of the Bible captures God's will like no other document. I believe that this is where the consciousness of humanity and the will of God meet. This is God's first word on the subject of moral conduct, but it is not God's last.

Beyond revelation, we have tradition. This is the thousands of years of insight, experience, thought and meditation carried out by people of profound spiritual sensitivity and caring. The Christianity of the New Testament is not the same as we worship today. We have added the fruits of centuries of experience to the Scriptural base. We are guided not only by our own voice, but by the voice of the millions of Christians who came before us.

My friends, God's law has set the standard by which we live. It has been the same since the beginning. Throughout our individual lives as ordinary people and throughout our history as the human race it has stood there, guiding us, challenging us, and calling to us. As we mature and gain wisdom as ordinary people, and as we mature and gain wisdom as the human race, God's revelation continues to work on us. As the law stands there calling, guiding, and challenging our behaviour, we gain greater insight into what God truly meant. Issues of slavery and the dignity of women, children, the handicapped and the physically and mentally frail, issues of freedom of thought and belief, are clearer to us now than they were a century or two ago.

Finally, grounding my moral response in God gives me the confidence that what I am committed to is not only my opinion, the opinion of my parents, my teachers, or some childhood hero. There is something profoundly, permanently right about it. When I waver in my commitment, when I am on the verge of backing away from doing what I believe because it is hard, inconvenient, unpopular or expensive, I need to know that my path is God's path. That it is indeed the best way and even though it may be difficult, that God is there with me every step of the way.

When we accept God’s rules into our lives; when we try to live by those 10 Commandments, when we try to embody the beauitudes, when we accept the wisdom of Proverbs and try to follow the example of Christ in our lives we will be transformed. We will be transformed on the inside as, over time, following God’s Commands will shape our character, our values, and our priorities. We become different people. We become better people. It transforms us on the inside, but it transforms our lives on the outside as well. It transforms our lives on the outside too because they transform the decisions that we make. When that Good Samaritan reached out and helped that traveler, he had no clue who he was and had nothing to gain, yet at great cost to himself he reached out and a life was saved. This is how God’s law transforms your life on the outside. By affecting your decisions God makes your life a blessing to others and to you. By living a Christian lifestyle we are equipping ourselves to live fully and meaningfully in a world that isn’t always kind, gentle, peaceful, or fair. It enables us to be human in a world that is often not humane.

This is just one thing that the Christian gets out of their faith that the atheist has to do without. This is just one difference that God has made in our lives.