By Jana Koh Jana Koh served as a pastor and church planter for 10 years, holding a Masters of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. She is certified as a Spiritual Director through Sustainable Faith, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree at Portland Seminary focusing on Leadership and Spiritual Formation. Jana is passionate about hearing others’ stories in order to better understand how they know and experience God so that they can look for God’s presence and activity together. Jana currently lives outside Seattle, Washington with her husband, two children, and basset hound. She loves to sing, play piano, write, crochet, dabble in photography, and she will find any excuse to visit the Puget Sound. You can connect with Jana through her website,
I'm quite with you, Ms. Koh, in almost all of this. Here's the remaining problem: I have friends for whom this statement—"In the face of our excuses, our fear, and even our biggest, most painful doubt, God promises His presence."—doesn't mean much, because they're not experiencing God's presence. Yes, I know, we take that promise on faith a whole lot of the time. But the words that "God is with you" anyway don't mean much to someone who is unsure that that's true, because it's not experienced. For me, much of this comes down, in the end, to Pascal's wager/Kierkegaard's perspective on faith: we believe in the absence of any evidence that we can see (even if we want to see evidence; some don't, of course). In those cases, the best that we can offer is that a friend, another person, may see something of God in my ongoing faith (which itself can be a bit rickety, depending on the day).
1000 times amen! For me it’s been realizing, gradually, over the course of decades, how very corrupt SO MUCH of the church, and of its life and teaching, is. When your own church betrays you, it’s the worst. So many “church authorities” want to tell you what to believe, not seeming to trust that God can do that, or that you can figure it out, with or without them. So many put themselves in the place of God. Millstones around necks comes to mind! It is the wise seeker who aims to discern and refuses to blindly follow false authority.
Thank you thank you, my wife and I left after we were very hurt by a church leader. We reach out for support and all we got was silence.
I'm quite with you, Ms. Koh, in almost all of this. Here's the remaining problem: I have friends for whom this statement—"In the face of our excuses, our fear, and even our biggest, most painful doubt, God promises His presence."—doesn't mean much, because they're not experiencing God's presence. Yes, I know, we take that promise on faith a whole lot of the time. But the words that "God is with you" anyway don't mean much to someone who is unsure that that's true, because it's not experienced. For me, much of this comes down, in the end, to Pascal's wager/Kierkegaard's perspective on faith: we believe in the absence of any evidence that we can see (even if we want to see evidence; some don't, of course). In those cases, the best that we can offer is that a friend, another person, may see something of God in my ongoing faith (which itself can be a bit rickety, depending on the day).
I'd welcome further thoughts on this.
1000 times amen! For me it’s been realizing, gradually, over the course of decades, how very corrupt SO MUCH of the church, and of its life and teaching, is. When your own church betrays you, it’s the worst. So many “church authorities” want to tell you what to believe, not seeming to trust that God can do that, or that you can figure it out, with or without them. So many put themselves in the place of God. Millstones around necks comes to mind! It is the wise seeker who aims to discern and refuses to blindly follow false authority.