Why do we believe we believe what we believe?

One night in London a friend and I headed down to Covent Gardens for skate, or to scout for girls or just to get out, cant really remember. I do however remember that my friend was telling me stories about how if you can to a place just before closing they sometimes gave you free stuff. Like any normal individual how could I believe him without actually experiencing it for myself? And further more free stuff was at hand. So we looked around for a possible target and ended up going to this pizza place, the fact that is was pizza was  a bonus. The real reason we went there was because there was a cute girl working behind the till. 

My friend was quite the charmer and landed up speaking to her for a while, needless to say we got two slices of pizza for free. Maybe because it was the policy maybe because it was because my friend was a hotty, either way free stuff. 

As we walked out of the pizza place with our new found treasures this guy came up to us. He could not have been much older than us. Asking for some money or food, as from the above story and us hassling for food, we had no money but we did have food. After some conviction and sadness we decided to part with our pizza, after all it didn’t really cost us anything anyway. As my friend was handing his pizza over to the guy he mentioned it was a bacon and banana pizza, still not sure why. But the guy responded by say “I don’t eat meat” but before he could finish his sentence he stopped half way and took the pizza and began to pick the meat off. I don’t know if you have even had meat on something and tried to take it off, you cant really get it all off. Why was this guy a vegetarian? 

Personally I think as a society we just believe things because they are the in things to believe, we don’t know why we believe things. If we stand for nothing we will fall for anything. I not picking on vegetarians here, I am asking a serious question, what makes a man go against what he believes and even practices to some extent? Some may say hunger; I would rather like to suggest that rather not knowing why we believe things is the leading cause for us giving up and not standing up for what we believe. If I believe in Jesus and don’t know why, I will be willing to call myself a Christian but when it comes down to acting out Jesus in everyday life I will rather give up, because I haven’t dealt with the questions as to why I believe in Jesus. 

Knowing what we know

Below is an intro to a little project I am working on! Called Saved by Chocolate Cake

When I was 18 I went to work in London for what was meant to be 4 years and ended up being 6 months which is another story all together. After a few weeks there and finding a cool job as a chef in a wine bar and getting settled in the staff accommodation, a room about 2 meters by 4 meters with a window that only opened 10 cm, to some that might sound big but too me it was tiny. But I was on my own and I was stoked, it was my first place away from the comforts of sunny South Africa. When I started to get dirty looks I realized it was time I did some washing. After visiting the local shop to get some washing supplies I gathered my things and headed down into the basement. I felt like somewhat of a hero, there is a strange sense that comes over you when you know you are on your own and about to do something for the first time. As I stood looking at all the machines and wondering to myself what to do. I remember I kept thinking a hot girl was going to come do her washing and we would become friends and life would be great. Never happened, instead in my excited state I continued to throw my clothes into the machine, throw in some washing powder and there I sat. I noticed some other machines had clothes in but the owners where not really phased to leave them unattended. They obviously weren't from South Africa; I wouldn't even turn around away from my washing, let alone leave it in the room alone. Although again I found myself wondering if in fact I left the room and returned later that day if my clothes would be dry and all nicely folded and clean by some washing fairy. Anyway, after entertaining my thoughts for close to an hour I wondered how much longer this was going to take, burger king breakfast finished at 10.30 you know. I walked closer to the machine to find that there was no water anywhere? Everything was dry with white powder all over it. It didn't take me long after that to figure out that the tumble dryer is for drying clothes and not washing clothes. I felt rather stupid in that moment. But was I really stupid? I mean how was I suppose to have know the difference, I have grown up in a family where if you didn't really know what you were doing you could ask and someone would show you or tell you. If you couldn’t find something you could ask, you just had to make sure you had looked hard before asking.

 

It is kind of like that with our walk with Jesus, we become Christians and have no idea about anything, we think we are doing the right load of washing when it turns out we just spinning hot air. It is almost forced on us that we should know what we are doing, but how are we to know with out people guiding us and helping us along the way. After all isn't this about community? I hope that the next few pages will help you too open up your eyes to the wonders of God, the goodness of who he is and who we are to him.

So often we are sold a chocolate cake Christianity, where they attract us with sweets and food, and while we there we stumble upon this person called Jesus. But that’s almost where it ends, the chocolate cake runs out and we are left with all these questions, not really knowing anything and expected to act a certain way and do things a certain way without actually understanding it.