Jim Pace

A new series… Sticky Issues…

November 12, 2010 | 3 Comments

So, just let me start off with saying that NO ONE likes that title.  My agent doesn’t; my first publisher didn’t; Tracy makes a weird sound when I say it; and everyone else that I have gone to for input on this title really does not like it.  So, I can virtually guarantee that it won’t be gracing any future books I might write.

But I can use it here 🙂  It’s kind of like vengeance.  Just a sad form of it.

This new series we will be embarking on is a bit of a continuation of [nlcf]’s Show Us Your Buts series.  You can take a listen to them here.  The page is still under a bit of construction, please bear with us.

The premise behind the question is that many of us have these lists, these sets of tough issues, sticky issues if you will.  Things that we don’t get about God, things that don’t make sense.  Times where he hasn’t answered prayer that we think he could have, should have.  Times where things were allowed into our lives that should have been stopped.  The premise behind the series is that we would take several issues and talk about them, try to get the conversation between us and God unstuck.

I really enjoyed the series.  It was a huge amount of work, but I feel like our team did a great job handling the issues.

But there are more issues than the ones we covered.  And that is the premise behind this blogging series.  Take the questions that weren’t covered or that came up as a result of the ones we did.  Discuss them a bit, and see how God speaks.

If you will, take the sticky issues of our faith and try to make some sense of them.

Over the next several months I will try to handle a couple a week.  Some weeks that will be possible, and others perhaps not.  But overall, let’s see what can happen.

Let me be clear with what my goals are for this.  I would love it to be an interaction between us as much as possible.  My goal is not to cover these issues waist deep in convoluted terminology or to show everyone that you should think more like me.

What I am is a long-term skeptic.  I don’t just accept something because someone said it.  I like to try to understand it for myself. That pursuit has on occasion allowed me to take things deeper than others might, and on other occasions caused me to make mistakes I could have easily avoided had I just accepted that good advice at face value.  Keep in mind, I am not a cynic.  A cynic is someone who tends to believe the worst about people and life.  I am a skeptic, I am very willing to believe the best, in fact in many areas of my life I can believe the best easily; it is just that I have questions I need to work through as I move to that belief.

So, these issues are important to me.  They have been important to me since before I ever accepted Christ.  I had to work through a few of them to come to a place of willingness to ask God to adopt me, to forgive me, to release me from the soul infection of rebellion and sin that I had become convinced I suffered from, and to give me a hope for the rest of my life.  And they have been important to me since.

So, please, let me know what you think.  Send in your sticky issue of faith.  Let’s see where this all leads, shall we?

Categories: Sticky Issues