When I spoke to you last week, the central idea of my message was simple: "Christianity is awesome."

Today I want to talk about the time I decided to walk away from being a Christian.

That story is coming.

Can I tell you something that might surprise you?

Some of the most influential believers in history - people we consider giants of faith - had moments where they doubted everything.

Martin Luther, the man who sparked the Protestant Reformation, wrote about periods of such deep spiritual depression that he questioned if God had abandoned him completely.

C.S. Lewis, after losing his wife Joy to cancer, wrote a book called "A Grief Observed" where he asked if God was just a cosmic sadist, tormenting us for sport.

Even John the Baptist - the man who baptized Jesus, who saw the heavens open and heard God's voice - later sat in a prison cell sending messengers to ask, "Are you really the One, or should we look for someone else?"

If you're new to faith, or just exploring it, this might sound confusing. But stay with me.

Because it could be that these moments of doubt aren't signs of failure. It could be they're a normal part of the journey.

One of the most powerful and epic stories in the Bible tells about a man whose father loved him in a special way.

His name was Joseph. His father bestowed a special gift on him, a beautiful coat of many colors. This coat marked his son as beloved, chosen, favored.

If you're Joseph, you're happy. You wear your coat proudly. You're excited. You're blessed. Maybe you're overwhelmed at how, out of 12 siblings, you are marked for special privilege.

That happiness doesn't last very long.

Because in the next scene, Joseph's own brothers threw him in a pit and then sold him into slavery.

Is that an "act of God?"

 

For this series, we're using a concept from the business world called the Transition Curve.

It has five stages:
Uninformed Optimism
Informed Pessimism
Crisis of Meaning (the crossroads)
Crash & Burn
Informed Optimism

I'm turning those into 5 messages:
Uninformed Optimism (Shiny Promises)
Informed Pessimism (Shock to the System)
Crisis of Meaning (The Dark Night of the Soul)
Crash & Burn (Crash and Burn... Or?)
Informed Optimism (Older Younger and Wiser)

 

We talked last week about Stage 1: Uninformed Optimism. That's where everything in your Christian life is awesome. You've got your spiritual coat of many colors. Your prayers feel powerful. Church feels like heaven. You're unstoppable. Because all the promises, the riches, and the inheritance of Christ is yours. You have eternal life, you have Christ, you have everything. Life is good and life is bright and your coat of many colors is awesome.

Then, something bad happens. And you are in the bottom of a pit, hearing your brothers at the top of the pit plotting how to kill you.

So let's talk about Stage 2: Informed Pessimism. Or as I like to call it, "Shock to the System."

This is where you discover something you probably weren't thinking about when you received Jesus.

Something that we all have to learn the hard way.

For me, it was something that nearly broke my faith until I understood what was really going on.

So last week's main lesson was:
1.Shiny Promises
2.Shock to the System
3.The Dark Night of the Soul
4.Crash & Burn... Or?
5. Older Younger and Wiser

Today's main lesson is: This fallen world is a morally broken pain machine.

And just because you're wearing a coat of many colors doesn't mean you're exempt from that machinery.