The contents of this post is a reply to Irene's letter:
God As Friend

Dear Irene,

See lah, you've now interrupted me just as I'm about to embark on my new series of blog entries. So much for good timing. Anyway, it's a good thing you're replying now, as I'm going to hit the road again soon! And no, I'm not enjoying myself with all this travelling. Be my guest; quick go to seminary for your MDiv and take my place so I can retire. Hahah.

Was I redefining what it means to be a Christian? Yes and no.

"Yes" (I'm redefining what it means to be a Christian) because I think somewhere along the way, we've overly emphasised "holiness" in the Christian life and understood it as sinning as little as possible so that we don't offend God. We keep thinking that God's eyes are on sin, and the eyes of the celestial policeman are prowling in search of sin so he can pounce on the offender. We forget that sin offends God only because it severs friendship with him. The point is, God's eyes are on friendship, not on sin! Sin is the thing that gets in the way of our friendship with him, that's why it grieves him.

"No" (I'm not redefining what it means to be a Christian) because the Christians in early church called themselves "friends of God" besides "followers of the Way", "Christians", and a host of other names. Also, if you've heard about the Quaker movement that existed sometime throughout the history of the church, you'd know that they called themselves The Religious Society of Friends. I'm therefore not saying something entirely new and unrooted in our historical faith.

So in a way, I am redefining what it means to be Christian; but in another way, I am simply recovering what I think has been lost in our Evangelical preoccupation with sin and repentance. I sincerely think God sees these dimensions of the Christian life in a very different way from what we tend to imagine of have been taught all throughout our formative years as Christians.

But it is true indeed that friendship with God is more than merely about whether God will grant us the desires of our hearts. There are times when he does and there are times when he doesn't. Nothwithstanding, God is our Friend. Actually, more than that, he is The Friend. On this account, we know that he will always make decisions that are in the best of our interest. But of course, this is also subject to how we define "our interests". Because this Friend of ours has concerns that are far larger than we do, and he has a view that's far wider than we can see. What seems good and just to us now may not be so in accordance with his larger concerns and wider view.

In this regard, I think it's useful for me to highlight that dimension of our faith in him that's relational and not merely propositional. If our faith was simply propositional, then we would try to figure out the most logically viable way to explain why God can be trusted as The Friend. But the very fact of the relationality of his friendship with us necessitates us to be willing to trust him just because we have a relationship with him. Just like when Jesus said to his disciplies "If you love me, you will do what I say"... what kind of logic is there in this? None. At all. Just because you love a person doesn't logically lead to your having to do what he says. But this isn't a propositional demand; it's a relational demand... on this account, the demand makes sense. Hence, the same "rule" applies: trust God, The Friend, not because you can reason out why he'd always work in the best of your interest, but because you love him. Your relationship with him permits for you to know intuitively that you can trust him wholly.

"Trust in my Father, trust also in me."

It makes sense to trust that he has your best interest at heart only when you trust that you have a friendship with him. Beyond that, no human logic or profound philosophy can justify our attempts to trust; because no philosophical justification is ever good enough to justify abandoning yourself into the hands of an unseen Friend. Can we trust?

To friendship!
Sherman