A Fresh Perspective

In the movie, The Help , Aibeleen Clark is the maid who is the first to volunteer to share her stories with Skeeter, who writes a book about their experiences. At the end of the movie, Aibeleen says: “God says we need to love our enemies. It’s hard to do. But it can start by telling the truth. No one had ever asked me what it feels like to be me. Once I told the truth about that, I felt free.” The truth really can set us free—free from having to be someone we are not, free from having to conform to other people’s expectations. It begins by being honest about who we really are and what we really feel. One of my most liberating experiences, an “aha” moment, though I came to it only gradually, was when I gave myself the freedom to be honest about what I was really thinking and feeling about God and the spiritual life. I gave myself the freedom to question things that I was taught by Christian pastors and leaders should never be questioned. Is there a danger going down this path?...

In the little book of Habakkuk, the prophet faces a crisis of faith. It was a common belief among Habakkuk’s people that plagues and invasions from other nations were indicative of God’s displeasure or judgment. Undoubtedly, Habakkuk shares this belief to some degree. Most of us share the beliefs we are socialized into through family and culture. The Babylonians are coming. They are a ruthless and violent people who worship might and power. They will sweep down and set their hooks and nets into the land and gather the people of Israel in like a fisherman gathers in his catch, to be used and disposed of at will (1:5–17). The prophet cries to God, “We cry for help but you do not listen. We cry out for deliverance but you do not save. The wicked hem in the righteous so that justice is perverted” (1:2–4). It’s a question of justice. How can it be, cries the prophet, that God would use a more wicked people to punish a less wicked people? Israel wasn’t innocent, but they were not as vi...