The Paladin's Pine Stump

Dear Christians, Over the last week I've seen at least two of you wear clothing emblazoned with a bible verse - "We walk by faith, not by sight." And it struck me as a really ridiculous concept, so I went back to my bible and looked up some context. It's far more than ridiculous. It's dangerous.  Here's the original passage: 6 Therefore  we are  always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:  7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)  8 We are confident,  I say , and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.  9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.  10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things  done  in  his  body, according to that he hath done, whether  it be  good or bad. This is from the original KJV, just to look at what the majority of ...

I speak to the young. I thought long and hard, about what it was like to be a child, not yet a young man, not yet providing for myself. I asked myself what I would have wanted to hear, what I should say to you from my place in the cycle. So, listen and I will say what you must know. It is hard to be where you are. The world is so immediate, and it’s got some big questions in it. Do you believe as your parents? As I do? What name does the sun have, does the moon have? Why are we here? Are you doing the right things? And none of these questions have a solid enough answer for me to say that it will have the same answer for every child who reads it. You are in a place where you do not know everything. That is okay. I do not know everything. No adult does. It is a prized secret that many of us believe we know less now than we did at your age, but we’re trying. We cannot dance the circle backwards, or turn back time with the knowledge earned. You are asking the same questions we are – an...