Answers

Things have changed. I still remain as convinced about Jesus as ever (most of the time - I still have my moments when I really hope we're not deluding ourselves) but I do experience a frequent tightening of the buttocks when Christians come up with easy answers to tough questions.

And prayer has become a complete mystery to me, and I don't mean that there are areas of confusion about it; I mean the whole subject has disappeared into a bank of thick fog. My problem used to be unanswered prayer - but now I'm more bewildered by answered prayer. Looking out at a world that screams with hunger and suffering, it stuns me that we in the affluent West get answers about anything at all, never mind reserved parking spaces. And yet....we do. God is interested in our trivial pursuits, though God knows why.

Jeff Lucas, writing to Adrian Plass, in Seriously Funny. (pg 12-13)