Page 130 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 23

The fall of man did not destroy everything, it le� a different world of faith such as the one described
longing for God in man, a deep memory of who
man once was as the image of God. This also inclu-
des the human ability, through insight, to turn back
from a lifestyle heading away from love and then to
perceive this as life-changing. The experience of a
personal conversion and its life-enhancing effects is equally part of life.
not only reserved for us Chris�ans. Others also
have this experience.
All five dimensions are important
That is why we need to supplement experiences of
faith, as one of the five dimensions of our faith,
with the other dimensions. Experiences may sup-
port and strengthen our faith, but we should be
more cau�ous about presen�ng “successes of
faith” as evidence.
Our whole life is a tes�mony to our faith. Thanks to
Jesus' redemp�on, we are able to accept life with
its lack, its longing, its searching and its fulfilment. ted, in our strengths and weaknesses, by ourselves
We must be aware that lack, as well as longing, the
search for fulfilment and fulfilment itself, are all
equally part of life, including that of a Chris�an.
How can we see this?
• Every experience of deficiency can be a remin-
der of our own imperfec�on and need for
comple�on and of God's offer of a rela�onship.
It is a renewed invita�on to turn to God, who
alone can sa�sfy all needs.
• Every longing to be understood, for love, for
meaning, tes�fies to the life present in us. We
are not statues complete in ourselves and alrea-
dy containing everything, but rather we are on
the move. Every longing can also increase our
hope that God really does have much more in
store for us than we have received so far.
• Every search can make us aware that we have
an ability to search at all, i.e. to be ac�ve, to act, with non-Chris�ans and feel more and more at
to shape our lives, to make a difference and to
achieve something. It can open our eyes not
only to the defects, but also to the richness of
life, in which there is something to seek.
• Every fulfilment, closeness and unity, reconcilia- see this world through God's eyes. Ul�mately, it is
�on and understanding, experience of mea-
ning, can make us grateful and allow the desire
to give and receive again to grow from the ex-
perience of being the recipient of gi�s.
Lack, longing, searching and fulfilment are part of
our lives and make sense. A success story from a
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above therefore does not contradict the Chris�an
faith, but shows that these basic needs are present
in every human being.
We must be aware that lack, as well as longing, the
search for fulfilment and fulfilment itself, are all
When we talk about ourselves, we tes�fy that we
are convinced of something, that we have experi-
enced it with God and that we are praying for it.
With some tes�monies, we risk that rela�onships
will be challenged, but we trust that the other per-
son will bear the fact that we are Chris�ans, and
that one thing will become tangible: “The kingdom
of God consists not in words but in power” (1 Co-
rinthians 4:20).
The love of God and his presence in us and his bles-
sing on us is the power in which we trust. This is
accompanied by the certainty that we are accep-
and above all by God.
This gives us an incredible authority, so that
streams of living water flow from us (John 7:38).
Others can perceive this water, even if we ourselves
do not. We can trust it. We can rely on it in rela�-
onships.
The challenge of the third conversion
There is one challenge I would not like to hide. En-
counters with non-Chris�ans can be a�rac�ve and
interes�ng for us on various levels. We may meet
people who are interested in the same things as we
are and in which hardly anyone in the church is in-
terested. We may meet people who tackle life in a
way that we miss in the church. In such cases, a lack
of second conversion can easily lead to us distan-
cing ourselves from the church if we experience
more apprecia�on and inspira�on in these contacts
home there.
Nevertheless, we must not avoid this human ad-
venture. It is part of our faith development that we
discard images of others as enemies and learn to
our decision whether or not we turn away from the
church as a result.
Light of the world
One of my colleagues was a member of the parents'
council at the local elementary school. Over �me,
he wondered whether there was any point in him