The Quiet Onez

What is truth?

¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

¹⁹ My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, ²⁰ let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

James 5:17-20

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There are two things that stand out to me about this passage:

1. “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.”

Elijah was a powerful prophet of God. Any prophet of God for that matter is important and notable in the Bible as being close to God. They would speak for Him and relay God’s message to His people.

With that in mind, hearing the words, “…with a nature like ours,” indicates that even Elijah wasn’t perfect. Sometimes, we feel like we need to be in a state of “perfection” to come to God.

Even I often times do the same in my walk with God. There are so many moments where I feel too much shame to even speak to God. Yet, those are the times where I need God the most in my life.

What is Christianity?

There is no such thing as coming to God in perfection. I think what non-Christians get wrong all the time is that we need to be “good” to save our souls.

People used to think that I became “soft” and “good” when I went to college and became a Christian. Giving our life to the Lord doesn’t mean anything with our sinful nature other than that we’re not accountable for it when we die.

What I believe matters most with Christian life is our personal connection and relationship with God. What makes us “good” is Jesus. What helps us become like Jesus is having a relationship with God. We “become like” Jesus, we are never Jesus.

2. “…whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

What is the biggest truth people wander away from?

The truth that there’s a God who came down to this earth to die for their sins. But, even simpler than that. The truth that we are messed up, that we’re sinners.

How are we messed up? We think horrible thoughts about people. We get angry over little things, impatient with others, cuss people out while driving, feel like punching someone when they disrespect us in some way.

Truth is, we’re utterly imperfect, and we don’t take a step back to understand why.

Yet, when we come back to the truth, we realize the imperfections and the flaws of our nature. And the closer we get to God, the more we realize how far gone our hearts and minds are without God.

What is Christianity?

As a Christian, there’s a certain level of understanding that I have with other Christians. We know, on a fundamental level, that we’re all sinners who have fallen short of God’s glory. We all know very well with one another that we are imperfect and need a savior.

With other people, however, I can tell that they live their lives without any conscious of their wrongdoings. There’s no rhyme or reasons to what they do and they go about life without any reflection of who they are.

Imagine yourself lost in the woods, but you don’t realize it. There’s a path that would take you back home, but you decide not to follow that path. You don’t believe in that path. Part of the path is filled with boulders you’d need to climb. Part of the path you notice has a small reservoir you’d need to hop over.

The path takes work, so you decide to chill in the woods, lost and unable to answer any reason as to why you’re there.

It all comes back to the question, what is truth?

Truth is that we’re sinners, and the path to realize that it difficult to process. We’re sinners because we chose to be. We don’t like others telling us what to do, let alone a God that we can’t see.

Truth is that we need someone to save us from our sins. To set us free from the misery and guilt that this life has placed on us. To set us free from the burden of our past, present, and future.