Christian Viewpoint: I discovered that God is fundamentally love

“Let’s try it for six weeks,” said Nick Hunter, Highland News/North Star editor back in 1993 when I offered him a weekly Christian column.

Christian Viewpoint, as Nick titled it, first appeared in the papers dated April 24, 1993, and has in fact appeared almost every week since then until next week's final issue.

I think I have fulfilled what I promised in that first column: to reflect “on what it means to be a Christian”, recognising that for a writer it’s “important to be real, and not pretend to be further into God than you actually are”.

Having this column has been a privilege. It’s great that the view held by a significant proportion of Highland people – that life has a spiritual dimension – is explored week by week in a local paper from a Christian perspective.

I’ve reflected on things I’m learned from the Bible; on books, movies, church services; and increasingly on interviews with local people who have shared their experiences of faith with me. I’ve reflected on news stories – I remember trying to find words after the Dunblane massacre, and on that sad Sunday morning when Princess Diana died, and following 9/11.

I’ve reflected on personal issues – births and bereavements in the family, my experiences of anxiety and depression.

To reread the columns is to journey with me as my own faith developed. I realised God is big beyond our ability to conceive. I learned to live with mystery and unanswered questions. I recognised that how we live our lives and relate to God is vastly more important that the precise details of our beliefs. And I discovered that God is fundamentally love, and sought that love through Jesus Christ.

Not every Christian will agree with everything I write, but the column is hospitable to the range of different beliefs within Christianity.

I still long for these pieces to be “real”, coming from the heart not simply the head. It might seem presumptuous, but often thoughts and phrases come to me with a sense of “givenness” as though they are promptings from God. In this I’m not “special”: I believe that whenever anyone has a creative thought leading to goodness, beauty and truth it is God-given.

And when something in these pieces, as in all our reading resonates positively with us and nourishes us, then God is nudging our hearts. If over the years a few people have been encouraged, inspired or blessed by my words, I will be very pleased.

This is the Highland News/North Star’s final issue, but the column is being reborn in the Inverness Courier. Christian faith is like that: for every ending there is a new beginning, full of possibilities.

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