The saying “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” is most likely the oldest English proverb still in use today. It was recorded as far back as 1175 in Old English Homilies. From the title of the book, the saying was old even in the 1100s. But it still applies, especially to my friend Sal.
Sal and I talk about every few weeks. Sal likes my writing and enjoys talking with me. But when it comes to the idea of God, Sal’s not buying it.
“I wish I could believe like you, but I just can’t”, he says.
I ask him why he has so much trouble believing. He then gives the boilerplate response of “how could there be a God when the world is so terrible?”
So I sit down and unpack the Biblical idea of how man is not basically good but intrinsically selfish. The world is bad because our hearts are bad. The world wasn’t made that way, but we’ve messed it up with our own choices and hatred.
Then Sal goes after the Bible.
“How can you know anything written that long ago is true? There are so many different versions”.
Deep breath.
“Well Sal, those different versions are simply translations of the original texts. They all same thing, they’re just worded a bit differently. And it’s put together by scholars who study for years to be able to translate ancient languages with accuracy.”
Sal conveniently changes the subject for a while. I accommodate him and chase his rabbits.
Then he suddenly circles back around…
“I grew up Catholic, but it was just a bunch of rules that didn’t make sense. God doesn’t want me to eat meat on Fridays? That’s nuts! So I eventually walked away from it all.”
I respond by talking about the odd rules my Baptist upbringing pushed. Just like some of Sal’s Catholic rules, some of my Baptist ones were never in the Bible and just added later on. But of course all this is beside the point.
“But Sal, when I was 14, I started reading the Bible. That’s where I fell in love with Jesus. In His words and actions, I saw someone so perfect, so holy, and yet so loving that I wanted nothing more than to be as much like Him as I possibly could. So I devoted my life to following Him and trying to make Him pleased with me…”
Sal stares at me for several silent beats of time. His mouth is actually open a bit as he tries to think of how to respond.
Then, finally…
“I really love your writing, Dave. There’s so much great stuff in there anyone can relate to. Your stories and the life lessons you draw from them are so moving. But that Jesus stuff? I just don’t get it.”
Funny thing, it’s Jesus who has taught me every one of those life lessons. It’s by following Him I’ve learned so much and am inspired to write about it. Without Jesus, I’d have nothing to write about!
So Sal is dazzled by the Teacher’s lessons, yet rejects the Teacher Himself?
One thing I’ve learned is that it’s not questions or doubts like Sal’s that keep most people from believing in God. Most people don’t believe simply because they don’t want to believe.
Conversely, most people who do believe do so not because of the preponderance of the evidence. They simply desire to believe life has meaning and there is a God behind it all.
Sure, there are exceptions to this. People like C.S. Lewis and even Lee Strobel claim to have accepted Christianity almost begrudgingly. They were overwhelmed by the logic of God’s existence. But I believe they are the outliers and not the norm.
Sal says, “I wish I could believe in God like you do”. But the truth is, people like him really don’t wish it. Because the only thing stopping them is their own lack of desire.
Got a question about God or the Bible? I promise you there’s someone out there with a pretty reasonable answer to it. Just read any of the thousands of book on apologetics out there and you’ll hear better reasons than mine to believe.
But if you want to keep doubting, there are books to feed your doubts as well. In addition, there are a bazillion YouTube videos and tons of snarky comedians who will make you think you’re just too smart for any of my “fairy tales”.
In the end, it really all comes down to what you want to believe.
To quote those philosophical songstresses The Spice Girls, “Just tell me what you want, what you really really want!”
As hard as it is for me to comprehend, some people simply do not want God. To except Jesus would mean admitting your current way of life is wrong. It would be saying you see something now you didn’t see before. Or you see something about yourself that needs to change. All those admissions would take humility.
But some people are just too arrogant to admit they are wrong. Just like the Emperor and his new clothes, their arrogance makes fools of them…
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe”
1 Corinthians 1:18-21
Honestly, sometimes I think I may be trying too hard with folks like Sal. While I’m working to make the Gospel easier to understand, sometimes it seems God is making it harder. God doesn’t jump through any of the hoops Sal sets up for him. God won’t give him any easy answers to his philosophical questions and doubts. Instead, for those like Sal who put their faith in their own intellects, God appears to muddy the water even more:
“And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given… Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand”
Matthew 13:10-13
While God loves all of us, there is one group of people God purposely discriminates against. God offers Himself freely to all people…all that is, except the proud.
Part of the Gospel message is that anyone, no matter how vile their life, can come to God if he or she wants to. The only requirement is just a desire for God. If you’re humble enough to desire God, He’ll make Himself more real to you than the sun in the sky above you.
However, if you don’t desire Him, He will make Himself scarce as a four-leaf clover. Like a gentleman, He’ll stay out of your business and won’t hound you at the door like sweaty Jehovah’s Witness.
It’s not that He doesn’t love you. He just knows it won’t matter. He knows that no matter how much evidence you see for Him in this world, it will never be enough to overcome your doubt …because you don’t want your doubt to be overcome.
For those who want to disbelieve, their disbelief will be multiplied:
“For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away”
Matthew 25:29
It’s not that God is happy about our disbelief. He’s not. Jesus wept over His own people’s denial of Him. But in the end, He stands His ground:
“… you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Matthew 23:39
In other words, “You’ll not see me until you really want to see me”. The spiritual things in this life are only seen by those who are looking for them. All the rest are the color-blind who insist “red” doesn’t really exist, simply because they don’t like that color.
That’s why after Sal’s long stare and dismissive response, I didn’t push the issue any further. I still wish he would embrace the Jesus I love so much. But I dropped the subject, for now.
No, I didn’t quote all those Scriptures above to Sal either. It wouldn’t have mattered if I did.
Why? Because you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. Jesus knew that too, and it made Him weep.
He wept over those who were so near to Him that day in Jerusalem, and those today like Sal, yet still so far away. But if you listen beyond their arguments, people will tell you what they want.
And what they really, really want is what God will give them.
