Dr. Ray L. Winstead
Professor of Biology (retired),
Indiana University of Pennsylvania

I am an amoeba!

Ray L. Winstead

(PDF Version)

I am an amoeba! My trying to fully understand God is like an amoeba trying to understand me! Just as an amoeba can have no chance of understanding me, I am also an amoeba who cannot really understand God. I really do want to understand more – and as much as possible – about God, but I am an amoeba! I must recognize that my understanding fully is beyond my capability. I must recognize that my responsibility is not to fully understand – but my responsibility is to have faith – even with my lack of understanding.

Micah 6:8 — What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?

I am a Christian who believes that our number one responsibility, as told to us by Jesus, is to love God – which becomes easier as we learn more about the nature of God, even within our limited understanding, as shown to us through the life and teachings of Jesus. Also, as Jesus said, our second responsibility is to love our neighbors – which is shown by our actions toward and with them. The important question to ask ourselves is not “Who is my neighbor?” but “Who am I?” “How can I best help my neighbor?”

We can debate the details of theological questions, BUT, to me, the most important conclusions about theology are to have faith in God and that God will show me mercy in the errors of my sincere attempts at understanding theological principles. I must surrender my desire for theological clarity to faith as a primary approach to becoming closer to God. I do think we should still continue to explore and strive earnestly for a better understanding of what Jesus expects of us – especially as to how those Christian principles apply to our daily lives and within the specific situations that arise. We do need to understand better how to apply His principles of living. We must continually ask ourselves “What does it really mean to love our neighbor in a given situation?”

If a belief in God and Christian principles could really be “proven” outside of faith, then that belief and those principles are no longer really tenets of a spiritual faith. Some people unnecessarily restrict themselves by believing that absolute reality only consists of the physical world and its physical principles – when, actually, absolute reality consists of not only the physical world – but also the spiritual world.

I think being open to and relying on the Holy Spirit through faith is going to be the key to this process of further enlightenment. Prayer will help me to connect with God through the Holy Spirit within me. Depending solely on my own reasoning is destined to fail – and will invariably lead me astray from spiritual truth. However, going through the process of reason will still help me to better understand what I CAN understand – recognizing that my reasoning about spiritual matters will be extremely limited.

Alas, I am an amoeba! Help my unbelief within my limitations!

But wait! Yes, I am an amoeba, BUT I am also a Child of God! Praise God for that!

So,

The Purpose of Life is to

Please God!

This means to

a) Love God!

b) Praise God!

c) Thank God!

d) Do the Will of God!
Love others.
Help others.
Repent of sin.
Abstain from sin.

For example, see Mark 12:28-31, Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 3:28, Mark 1:15, Matthew 7:21, and Micah 6:8.

Of course, this immediately presents problems and other questions, as well as decisions to be made on HOW to live out the details of our lives.

So, the basic concept for us is:

Our personal purpose of life is to become more like Jesus.

 

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