#57 What abouts are roundabouts! "Thoughts from the Back Deck..."

In religion, you obey because God is useful. In Christianity, you obey because God is beautiful. ~Pastor Timothy Keller

As we live our lives together, we will always have a time(s) when we struggle with our faith. This is true for all people. It is universal. We all put our faith in things, even the atheists! Faith in a spouse. Faith in a deity. Faith in ourselves. 
As Christians, we put our faith in Jesus.
Because we are talking about faith and not a scientific exercise in a lab somewhere, we will, at some point, have our faith tested. We have questions. There are times we do not understand why. 
Life in Jesus is about faith and trust, and many things happen in this world that don't make sense in our limited view of life.

Sometimes that leads us to "what abouts." 
Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." 

I often have people come to me with "what about" questions...
"What about" the good people that don't know Jesus?
"What about" the baby that dies and never heard about Jesus?
"What about" the Jewish people?
"What about" the Muslim people?
"What about" the person who has never heard of Jesus...
"What about" suffering and how could God allow that...
"What about" bad things that happen to good people...
"What about..." 
"What about..." 
"What about..." 

All reasonable questions. In some cases, there are answers. In other cases, there are not answers provided... This is where faith kicks in. Trusting that God has answers even though He may not have given us the answer.

Yet the "what abouts"  can plague us. "What abouts" can be like road roundabouts.

Think about how we all differently approach road roundabouts. 
Some timidly.
Some barreling through.
Some like it's just a turn in the road and don't even think about it.
Some think it's like a roller coaster ride "twisty-turney."
Some can't seem to enter.
Some can't seem to exit.
Some dread them and drive out of their way to avoid them.
Some think roundabouts are the greatest invention since sliced bread!

When we enter the roundabout of "what abouts" maybe stop and reflect on Paul's words... "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures" 1Corinthians 15:3

Sometimes we can get lost in the "what abouts" of life. 
Don't loose site of that which is of  "first importance!" 
Jesus really is beautiful, isn't He!! 
What a savior!

Peace out, 
Andy

https://www.stpaullakeland.org/

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