Unka Glen

Anonymous asked: I have very intense doubt. I think I believe in God, but without any “proof,” it’s hard for me to feel safe. The fear that God might not exist is completely crippling, and I spend most of my time consumed by absolute terror. I want to believe so badly, but it’s so hard. I try to pray, but I can never feel “God’s presence.” Do you have any advice for dealing with doubt? <3

Unka Glen answered: I vaguely remember a lecture in my college days, about a psychology lab that did sleep studies. They woke people up after being asleep for a few minutes, and others who had been asleep for a few hours. Often, they could report roughly how long they’d been asleep. But neither they, nor the scientists could say just how they came by this knowledge. 

They called it meta-knowledge, things that you just know, even if you can’t say how.

Some things just exist in our minds, explanation or not, and we’ve experienced this many times over in our lives, and accepted it without scientific scrutiny or philosophical debate. But when it comes to God, well, that’s another story. Deep down, in your secret heart, deep in your soul, even as you read these words, you feel the undeniable presence of God, warming your heart and giving you a proof that is beyond science or logic. You know that you know.

What you’re afraid of is that God DOES exist. Because if He does, that changes everything. No more handwringing debates, no fears to wrap yourself up in, no more games. Just you standing in the full sight of an all-knowing, all-powerful God. The worry is that God exists, and that He just doesn’t like you’re style.

I’ll give you just a three word quote from the Bible: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). To be in God’s presence is to be in the presence of love. To enter into a relationship with God is to be lost in love, to be overwhelmed and consumed by love. To abide with God is to know that this love is bigger than any sin, any doubt, any fear. 

God’s saving love says to you, “all that’s over now. You can relax.”

followandreblog asked: Uncle, I need help! It’s about a friend’s quest to know God. She sent me a letter and part of it says, “How does one ‘know’ God? I mean I can claim all I want: I know who the guy is, he’s the Son of the Father, born through the virgin Mary, died for our sins, etc. All that, though, and I still don’t FEEL like I KNOW the guy. What I’m afraid of is being saturated by all this searching and all the information I get and still NOT be transformed.” Here is part of what I said: “The best thing to do is give God the benefit of the doubt that He will transform you because He loves you. God is bigger than your fear.” - but I probably didn’t help much because my answer’s still vague. Can you spare some advice for her? [edited for length]

Unka Glen answered: Your answer was better than you think, but first let’s look at this question… It’s interesting how we use this word “know”. Let’s say you have a brother, and I decide to memorize a ton of facts about him, his favorite color, his favorite movie, his favorite food, and so on, now would you say that by knowing those facts, that I now “know” your brother? No. You’d say I know about him.

You’d say, and rightly so, that you know him, and that I don’t, because you have a relationship with him and I don’t. It doesn’t matter if I could name his favorite movie and you couldn’t. There’s a huge gap between knowing someone and merely knowing about them. Thus your friend is making a very wise observation, yes, she knows all of these facts about Jesus, but she don’t know Him.

Yet hasn’t she experienced a glimmer of that relationship already? Hasn’t she ever felt a moment of comfort in a time of trial? A stab of conscience when she was about to do something wrong? Isn’t her letter to you a response to God calling on her heart to find that point of connection?

She’s seen God in you, that’s why she’s writing to you. She’s felt God in her heart, that’s why she’s on this journey. She knows how to be in a relationship, and how to do all the things that make a relationship strong: communicating, spending time together, expressing affection, and so on.

It’s just like a wedding. All you have to do is say, “I do”, and you’ve begun.

Image credit: pocketfulofwater.tumblr.com

Your lies are stupid. I don’t mean that to be insulting, heck if I’m insulting anyone it’s me for believing your stupid lies. Actually, I haven’t just believed these stupid lies, I’ve often lived my life according to them. 

Here’s a stupid lie: I’m the only one who’s looked at porn. The porn business makes about a zillion dollars a year, but I’m the only one? Heck, if Christians alone stopped buying it, they’d go out of business. Here’s another stupid lie: people won’t think I’m cool if I’m a Christian. Cool people don’t care what anybody thinks. Besides, what, people are gonna think I’m cool for being nothing?

Here’s another stupid lie: I’ll never find someone to fall in love with, and get married. Dang, the whole world, down through the generations, has found a way to pair off and hook up, but you, in an internet-connected world of nearly infinite possibilities, presents such a huge challenge to search algorithms and to Almighty God Himself, that we can’t find someone for you? C’mon.

Here’s another stupid lie: God doesn’t really love me when I mess up. Heck even imperfect people like me manage to love others, even after they’ve made mistakes. I’m supposed to think that a God who says about himself, “I AM LOVE”, somehow is less loving than I can be?

These lies are so stupid, that by simply saying them out loud, they start to fall apart and lose their power. So all that’s over now. The cure is simple: anything that steals my joy, I’m gonna say out loud what that thing is. Your lies are too stupid to work in the cold light of day.

In Jesus name,

Me

P.S. Bite down on that and suck it.