“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1, NET)

“I know God breathed on this.” (‘God Breathed’, Donda, Kanye West)

Let’s start

It seems to me that Christianity is a religion that begins with a question. 

“What if?”

I suppose most religions and views about the meaning/meaninglessness of existence start with a question like that.

Along the way, there are other things that we can ask. For example, you might ask me this. “If God is so damn good, why are things so messed up?” 

There are plenty of questions like that and they matter, big time.

But most of those questions are downstream from a larger question.

“What if?”

“God breathed”

On the third track of his new album Donda, Kanye West repeats the words “I know God breathed on this.” His powerful vocal sits on top of a brooding riff which reinforces the refrain.

The knowledge (“I know”) he is referring to is the knowledge of faith. 

To come a place where you can say “I know” about anything relating to the divine means that somewhere along the way, you faced up to a primal question.

For some, it might be a easy question to face. For others, it might be unnerving. Maybe for some of you it sounds dangerous.

What if God is real?

What if there is a divine Creator? 

And what if this Creator breathed life into being, sustains it, and has good intentions?

What if?

A wager

In some ways, you could understand Christianity as arising out of a wager. A wager that the answer to this explorative/explosive question is worth chasing down.

What if God is true? Could it be? 

Well… Let’s see.

What if the baseline truth about reality is Love? 

OK… Well let’s find out where that leads.

What if we came from somewhere good, are here for a reason, and are made for a good future?

LET’S TRY THAT ONE ON FOR SIZE.

Of course you could equally play the other game. What if God doesn’t exist? What if there is no superior creative intelligence behind existence? 

You can take the “What if” question in any direction you like!

And why not? You may as well have a go. 👍

The calibre of your quest

But some questions are better than others.

And the calibre of your questions dictate the quality of your quest.

And in a world like ours, on a day like this, I’d suggest that your best move is to go right to the heart of the matter. You want to get at the source.

What if God is real? What if a good, loving, creative, caring, expansive God is real?

If you are in your late teens or early twenties, this is a great time to make yourself available to a question like this. It’s a formative time. Think about it. You’re working out what it means to be you. You’re making choices about work, hobbies, relationships, direction. You’re exploring ideas, figuring out what makes the world spin, and building yourself up for the future.

This is exactly the right time gather your courage and put this question to the test.

A question worth staking your life on?

So, what if God is real? What if God is true? What if God is alive? 

It’s a question to start a thousand quests.

And it’s just a start. It’s hardly scratching the surface. But simply asking it puts you in the fine company of the human race, with all theologians of the road and philosophers of the street who have been asking questions like this since the beginning. It puts you in the company of the countless other travelers who have sought to know the truth of God and the meaning of life.

If you open yourself to this
with the right heart and with good intentions,
you’ll find it is the beginning of a journey that you are worthy for.

If you continue upon that journey
pursuing it with the best of your being,
you’ll find that there is more within you than you knew,
& there is so much more to life than you dared to dreamed.

Hey, it’s just a question! 

What if?

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Get in touch @thomasmepham or @studentsoul at IG

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