Sam and I have been talking about our families a lot lately. We’re on the verge of bringing a new being into the world, and into two very different families.

One of the questions I’ve been asking myself for the last 24months or so is: how do I reconcile my faith-life with my family life?

My folks have always been very supportive of my church endeavours, but they themselves have not found any traction from a faith perspective. As I’ve moved closer to the teachings of Jesus and the influence of the Holy Spirit, I have found that I lead a double life: that of my faith-community, and that of my family. I have not been good at being a congruous being. At times I have felt that I’m the same old Aiden in front of my family, but a different person in my faith community.

This incongruity is an imbalance, and like nature dislikes imbalance, I have felt the need to address the issue. My solution: to try and be more upfront with my family about my faith, my relationship with Jesus and how it all affects the way I see the world.

It has been a process of baby steps for now. I have sensed (only slightly) a resistance and hesitance to me being more congruent and true to my faith. I guess the danger of doing this is that it gets interpreted through the normative secular filter of who and what a Christian is i.e. they bible bash you, they try and impose salvation on your life, they are hypocrites, etc.

In the end, I have a sense that the last thing my family want is to feel that I’m imposing my faith on them. I hope they never feel this. Rather, I hope they’d see that it is something I want to share with them … in more than an information sense.

Again, Sam and I were talking about why we desire that our families find faith. It’s not the usual ‘turn-or-burn’ sentiment, but rather that we believe we have access the a better life through Jesus, and that this experience is worth sharing. Also, that it would help to have more in common with our families … something more than the same home town, etc, but something of greater significance, something of eternal value.