Was George Michael right?

Seeing is believing, unless your religious in which case the opposite is true.



Was George Michael Right?

 

Here's is a question that demands an answer - one that cannot be ignored -

 

Is George Michael Iron Man?

 

Think about it, have you ever seen George Michael and Iron Man (or Tony Stark) in the same room? Both have perfectly sculpted facial hair, both have less talented friends called Andrew (although I don't think we've ever seen Iron Man's friend Andrew - Iron Man is a genius and so probability states he has a less talented friend called Andrew, it is a popular name. BTW I can't think of any geniuses called Andrew, although I do admit I didn't think about it for more than a fraction of a second.) Both made money from waving their arms about, both like Pepper (again an assumption but I can find nothing online that says George Michael doesn't like pepper). I think I've cracked it - GM and IM are the same person.

Back in 1987 Iron Man, thinly disguised as as a leather jacket wearing, guitar playing George Michael, insisted we have 'Faith'. (1987????!!!!! I couldn't believe it when I read that.)

I agree with him, faith is a very important part of  belief in God. But what is it?

Well according to the bloke (we assume its a bloke, it may have been a woman but since we are talking about the 1st century in the Middle East where women didn't really count and had no education other than how to cook and clean and be a good little housewife, I'm going to say bloke) yes, according to the bloke who wrote a letter to some Hebrews somewhere (we aren't sure where) -

"faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see".

(From The Epistle to the Hebrews ch. 11 v. 1)

 

Lovely words - but a trifle confusing. I had confidence that my hope of winning the lottery last week would come true. It didn't (then again, it may have helped my cause somewhat if I had bought a ticket!). I do not see the blu tooth connection between my iPad and this keyboard but I'm assured it works by the words I see appearing as I type. Faith may be the confidence and assurance thing as described above, but it is more than that and not so easily described.

If you've ever watched the All Blacks play rugby you may understand this next illustration - if you haven't I may lose you for half a page or so, but stick with it, I'll start writing in English again a bit further down the page. I'll put an asterisk there, like this *, to show you, if you really can't take the rugby stories.

So if you have ever watched the AB's play well you will have seen a graphic demonstration of what faith is.

 

Imagine the scene - the men in black are playing their arch rivals the Wallabies in the deciding game of the Bledisloe Cup. It's 21 - 21 with 2 minutes to go and there is a scrum on the Wallabies' 22.

The half back puts the ball in and retrieves it from the number 8 and here is the demonstration of faith- he passes without looking, straight to the man on his shoulder. The fly half passes it on, again no need to look, to the inside centre, he passes it back inside (while looking outside him) to the scrum half (who has circled round) who throws a double miss pass to the winger who scores a spectacular try in the corner. All this is done without anyone needing to look where the ball is going.

Why? Because each player knows there will be someone there to take the pass, he trusts those around him to do what they should, he has faith in his team mates - for faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Is God any different? Not to me! He is the player always on your shoulder, always there to catch the ball if you drop it. The unseen support who is just where he should be, just when he should be.

 

* Welcome back to the non rugbyed people in our midst.

 

There is a famous little story called "Footprints" it tells of a person looking back over their life, which looks like a beach, and seeing two sets of footprints in the sand. On closer inspection there are parts of life where there are only one set of prints. Turning to Jesus the person asks why, at the worst points of life, Jesus had left Him alone. Jesus answers, "That's not where I left you, that's where I carried you."

 

There is a cartoon that extends the tale - a grinning Jesus pointing and saying, "And those lines are where I dragged you for a while."

 

To me that's what Faith is - knowing that Jesus is there and will even drag you around for a while.