{"id":156,"date":"2009-11-21T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-21T14:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2009\/11\/life-with-god.html"},"modified":"2009-11-21T14:45:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-21T14:45:00","slug":"life-with-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/11\/life-with-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Life with God"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m speaking at a conference this weekend for a group of about 160 people, mostly high school students. And I’m supposed to explain the Christian faith to them over the course of four 20 minute talks. Whatever you believe, it’s a good exercise: how would you explain the way you make sense of the world in terms that make sense to a 16-year old boy? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s been a good challenge for me. I’m trying to explain what it means to live with God. The genesis of the idea came from a conversation I had with my mother-in-law, Penny, many years ago. Here’s an excerpt from my book, Penelope Ayers<\/a>, in which I relate that conversation:<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Penny took me to Dante\u2019s Kitchen for lunch. Palm trees shaded the entrance, and inside, the walls were painted in vibrant colors\u2014sunburst yellow, teal blue, fire engine red. I\u2019m sure we talked about trivial matters before we ordered our food, but what I remembered later was Penny\u2019s question to me. \u201cAmy Julia,\u201d she said, \u201cwhat do you think Christianity is really all about?”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/div>\n
She asked deliberately, as if she had been waiting all morning for just the right moment. I put my fork down and held my hands in my lap. I didn\u2019t want to give a pat answer or talk about my beliefs as if I could hand them over in outline form.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/div>\n
\u201cI used to think it was about forgiveness,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd I still think forgiveness is important, but I think forgiveness is just a means to an end.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/div>\n
Penny looked eager, as if I were about to disclose the solution to a mystery. I was afraid I might disappoint her. I talked with people about God for a living, but that fall, I had begun to suspect that I was teaching answers to the wrong questions. Many of the students I worked with seemed to think about their faith mostly in terms of what would happen when they died, that is, who was \u201cin\u201d and who was \u201cout\u201d of heaven. I had started to think that living with God here and now mattered just as much as living with God after death.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/div>\n
I ran my fingers along the edge of the white tablecloth and looked up at her. \u201cAnd the end, the point, I think, is a life lived with God.\u201d For the first time, I put into words what I had been mulling over for months. I stated my new thoughts as simply as I could: \u201cI think Christianity is about God inviting us to live life with Him starting now and continuing on for eternity.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/div>\n
As the waiter began to clear our plates, Penny nodded.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/div>\n
\u201cLife with God,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I want to figure out.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/div>\n
This weekend, I hope that these students will join me in figuring out what it means to live with God, starting here and now, continuing on for eternity.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m speaking at a conference this weekend for a group of about 160 people, mostly high school students. And I’m supposed to explain the Christian faith to them over the course of four 20 minute talks. Whatever you believe, it’s a good exercise: how would you explain the way you make sense of the world…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"\nLife with God - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2009\/11\/life-with-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life with God - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’m speaking at a conference this weekend for a group of about 160 people, mostly high school students. 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}