Even our angriest accusations are preferable to indifference.
If you’re a Christian for long enough, you’ll notice that something sad starts to happen. A lot of the people who started the journey with you end up walking away.
They leave for various reasons and go out different doors. Some leave loudly, announcing that they no longer believe in God. Others drift away without so much as a whisper.
I wrote my first book on 20-somethings who shed their Christian identity. They had lots of reasons for leaving. Many were hurt by other Christians. Some were drawn to behaviors that were incompatible with Christian beliefs. Others were plagued by doubt. The interesting thing to me is that some of the most faithful Christians I know have experienced identical challenges.
What explains why some leave while others stay? Sometimes the only difference I could see is what they did with their trials. The first group ran away from God while the second ran toward him. Instead of letting doubt and disappointment fester in darkness, they dragged it into the light. They joined the great biblical tradition of prophets who expressed their grievances to God, often in harsh and accusatory language.
In the landmark book On the Varieties of Religious Experience, 19th-century American psychologist William James described two kinds of Christians. One he called “healthy-minded” believers. These folks are natural optimists. They rarely, if ever, struggle with doubt. James describes their souls as “sky-blue” and observes that their “affinities are rather with flowers and birds … than with dark human passions … and they think no ill of man or God.”
I know a lot of “healthy-minded” believers. They’re not simpletons. …
Continue reading…