When in doubt of one, turn to the other.

I was shooting an assignment in downtown Atlanta when I took this photo last month of a street corner preacher, who was in my opinion, doing more harm than good by how he preached / talked down to people that were passing by his “pulpit” while headed to an Atlanta Hawks game. You can read more about that in my previous two post’ about him. I wanted to finish off this story about him on a more positive note, though.

Notice that the Bible is in focus here and he is out of focus. Well, sometimes that’s what you have to do for yourself when it comes to religion. You’ve got to know when to just tune out certain people, and turn to The Bible yourself to gain a greater understanding of what’s there.

Although – once there – you’re sure to get frustrated trying to make sense of all that’s in it. It’s my belief that it’s not all suppose to make perfect sense to us in this life. Some of it will make more sense to you at some points in life than it will in others. Some of it I have a hard time believing – still. I suspect I always will. But, as Andy Stanley often says, you don’t have to believe everything in it to read it, and get valuable insight from doing so. People read newspapers all the time when they don’t believe everything they say. The Bible is filled with great insight and advice, much of which would make the world a much better place if we all actually followed it.

When in doubt of one, you have to turn to the other. Meaning: you are going to need to seek out wise counsel in regards to your faith and The Bible. And when you’re in doubt of your wise counsel, which you will be at times, you will need to turn back to The Bible – and prayer – to try and make sense of it all. Then back to your wise counsel. In my experience, that’s the cycle you will stay in when it comes to any Christian faith. They all go hand-in-hand. There has to be some balance, though.

Except for maybe when one of them is telling you that your mamma is going to go to hell with you for going to a basketball game. That’ll certainly throw off your balance – and make you not want to have anything to do with ANY church – and Christians like me that are just trying to become better people for ourselves, those we care about, those we don’t even know,  and the world we all share.