I love the writings of Jeff Turner. Here’s a great piece that he wrote a couple of weeks ago:

I’ve had my faith tested on a number of issues over the years, and have watched various doctrines fall, one by one, into the pit of irrelevancy and untenableness. At several points along the way, I’ve even been tempted to hit the eject button on theism altogether, and seek refuge in the “greener pastures” of atheism I’d observed from “above.” It was not fancy apologetics (which often left me either cringing or chuckling), abstract notions of deity, fear of hell or nihilism, or even the loss of relationships that kept me coming back to Christianity, but rather its Christ. Even when I had difficulties knowing how to understand the role and work of Jesus, it was him and him alone, and not the trappings of religion, or even the warmth of community, that continually drew me back to Christianity.

There is something radical and revolutionary about this figure named Jesus, whom both religionists and atheists alike have been awed and inspired by. When I disbelieved, he disbelieved with me. When I believed only in love and humanity, he did the same. And when I came again to believe in God, albeit in a more beautiful way, it was he that I came to believe in again.

Sometimes when we lose everything in regards to our beliefs, it can feel like a chaotic, death-is-certain free fall. If you lose everything, you…well, lose everything. You don’t know where to turn, where to go, or what you can trust in any longer. In these times we must have a “constant,” or something that grounds us in reality. For me, my “constant,” my grounding, was always the figure of Jesus. Though I knew and understood him differently in different seasons, it was what he revealed to be true of God and humanity that kept me from slipping into an existential abyss, from which I may never have escaped.

I want to encourage you, wherever you are on your journey of faith and spirituality, you can find a traveling partner in the person of Jesus. Whatever you are, he’ll become. Wherever you are, he’ll join you. Even if you need to not believe, he’ll become an unbeliever with you. There is no trench in the human experience he has not dived to the depths of. Wherever you are, you’ll find him.