Relief in "Relief"

As a modern day Christian I, along with many others, find that in some ways our faith has been disconnected with reality. It is as if the belief in a supernatural being that created all things is considered science fiction in a world that proclaims to be science fact. This schism in the human psyche presents us with a sort of alien effect in the world in which we live.

To compound this issue we also find that in many of the religious institutions of the world we are just as foreign. It is as if when we go to congregate with other Christians everyone wears a mask of what they believe they should be. Many churches today create this pseudo-peace type existence that our mind utterly rejects as authentic. (Quite possibly the reason conversions are down across the nation.)

So what we have is a person, such as myself, that fully believes in God (with reasonable doubt of course) and fully believes there is no place for them. The world rejects the person's premise of a Creator, and the church rejects the person's need to not only be relevant, but real. I do not believe this is what Christ had planned.

With all this considered I arrive to my point of this entry. I recently read my first issue of Relief. Relief is a Christian literary journal that treats the cause of our faith with a very open eyed, honest, and transparent perspective. They seem to understand that the corporate church environment has become just as alien to us as the world in which we live. As you read their published works you become engrossed with the theme of real world hurt married with supernatural comfort. It is this marriage that appeals to the genuine faith we all strive for.

In closing I simply thank the people over at Relief for their hard work and their vision. The goal of this publication as stated on their website is, "to pursue a complete picture of Christ and life –- real, gritty, painful, wonderful, this-side-of-heaven life." To this they have been successful. May I also recommend that all my readers take the time to look over their site (http://www.reliefjournal.com/) and even consider a subscription.