Can you relate?

Spirituality Column #28
May 22, 2007
Current in Carmel (IN) newspaper

Can you relate?By Bob Walters

To those who view the Bible as a guide book for our relationship with God, the Cosmos and other people, it is a liberating book of immeasurable depth.

If you try to make the Bible the full literal story of all history and the complete rules of life, you will be trapped by its smallness. There is no freedom in specific orders; there most definitely is freedom in Christ.

The Ten Commandments? Great rules. But do you mind if I work in my yard on Sunday?  For commandments that work all the time, I like “Love God” and “Love others.”

Genesis and Creation? Brilliant people on both sides of the Creationist (God created the world in six 24-hour days) and Evolutionist (we are mutated fish that crawled out of the primordial ooze over several billion years) debate will not give an inch on their respective views of Genesis 1.

Inasmuch as God, Christ and the Holy Spirit pretty much are Creation (done deal), there doesn’t seem – to me – to be a whole lot at stake arguing the topic of Creation / Evolution. It has already happened just as God planned it. Christ is all about faith, hope, love … and looking ahead.

As a believing (if personally flawed) Christian I will tell you that the main point, the sum-total of the entire Bible, is that we are to build a faith and relationship in Jesus Christ.

Can you believe in Christ without believing in Creation? I say, of course, because Creation isn’t the main thing in our relationship with God; Christ is the main thing. The Bible is crystal clear in saying Christ is the only way to have a relationship with God. The Holy Spirit will help your heart and mind sort out the details.

Instead of asking “How did I get here?” I’d ask, “How is my relationship with Christ?”

Now there is a deep question.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is a Carmel resident who believes we are here for a reason … and it isn’t to prove that mutated fish can build hospitals and highways.