A year ago, a friend of mine completed the Alpha course. If you haven't come across it before, it basically tackles issues/questions surrounding the Christian faith and creates an environment for these topics to be openly discussed, over the course of 10 weeks. Along with a second friend of ours, the three of us did this course together, and it provided the perfect platform for me approach the questions they had about what I believed in. At the end of the 10 weeks, neither of them had been compelled enough to make an active response to the claims and teachings they had been listening to, which was understandably disappointing to me. I had been especially hopeful considering they had stuck with the course and attended all 10 weeks; showing genuine enthusiasm.
So...
A year later, I find this same friend in my flat. The same discussions. The same peaks and troughs of agreement and disagreement over some of the questions he continues to raise, 12 months later. In that time, he has continued to find joy and fulfilment in the same things as the previous 12 months. And probably the previous 12 months before that. Travel, philosophy, hash, sex. None of which seem to have done it for him.
He would say that it's all part of his journey of discovery, and I would agree to certain extent.
But then, what about the coming 12 months. What's gonna happen if (or when!) those things fail to get him through significantly more difficult circumstances. He's been blessed enough to have had a fairly clear path over the last 12 months. So the questions he had for me on the Alpha course, still haven't apparently demanded such an urgent answer (in his opinion).
But as we both chatted about this, amongst a hundred and one other issues, it was hard to convey to him just how urgent this realisation needed to be.
Yes, he has had a happy and care-free 12 months. Yes, his philosophies and ways of doing things have left him unscathed for another year. But what if life comes crashing down around him tomorrow? Or next week? Or next month? Will he want to be clinging to his rizlas and care-free living?
Or to The Rock of Ages who has been there with all the answers, all the hope and all the direction, all along...?
