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"Why be a Christian?", I was asked by a friend recently. I must admit that I was surprised by the questions. I was brought up a Christian but had never been very interested in my faith until I found myself asking whether it was true or not. If it was true that humanity was destined to share God's own ununtterable happiness, then this must be the purpose of my life. If it was not true, then clearly I must leave the Church. So I replied to this friend of mine, "Because it is true." But this did not satisfy him one bit. "But what's the point of being a Christian? What's the purpose of it?"

We were clearly at cross-purposes. If Christianity is true, then it does not have a point other than to point to God who is the point of everything. If one asks about the point of doing anything, then ultimately, if one pushes the question far enough and if it is a serious matter, then one will come to the point of everything, the ultimate goal and purpose of our lives, and that is what religions are about. A religion that tries to market itself as useful for some other purpose--because it helps you to live a stable life, because it gets rid of stress or makes you wealthy--is shooting itself in the foot. If it has to justify itself by serving some other end, then it cannot be a religion that one could take seriously. The point of any religion is to point us to God who is the point of everything. That is why it makes no sense to ask whether belief in God is 'relevant', because God is the measure of all relevance.

But my friend was not deterred: "What do you get out of it? What does it do for you|?" And I began to see what he was getting at. These truths to which we adhere must have some consequences in one's life. The truths of the law of gravity and that earth is a globe have consequences. One can design planes that take off and if they set off in one direction they will eventually get back to where they started. If the truths of Christian teaching have any effects in one's life, any fruit, then what sort of truths would they be? If God is the point of everything, then being religious, being pointed towards God as one's ultimate goal, must show itself somehow in one's life.

So Christianity must surely make a difference, even if one is not a Christian so as to obtain the difference. If, for example, it were to be established that Christians were more calm and relaxed that other people, then one would not urge people to share our faith in order that they become less stressed. "Become a Christian so as to sleep well at night.` That would be to make religion merely useful lifestyle accessory like going to the gym. It would be selling God as useful to me, like a bath essence or aromatherapy. But the fact that one`s faith did, just an example, make one more relaxed, or happy, or courageous of whatever, might suggest that the truth claims of Christianity are not trivial, and that they would be worth investigating. If shaping one`s life towards God as one`s ultimate destiny has consequences such as making one free, as I shall argue, then one would not say to people, `Become a Christian because it will make you free.`But if people see that Christians are free in an attractive and intriguing way, then they may become interested in knowing why, and ultimately in the God whom we worship....

(Excerpts from Radcliffe`s Intro of ``What`s the Point of Being A Christian``)

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