Saturday, February 05, 2005

new deep

"Stop trying to figure it out / Deep will only bring you down"
John Mayer, Heavier Things, "New Deep"


"Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don't try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
he's the one who will keep you on track.
Don't assume that you know it all.
Run to God! Run from evil!"
Proverbs 3:5-7, The Message


"Don't be lured away from him by the latest speculations about him. The grace of Christ is the only good ground for life. Products named after Christ don't seem to do much for those who buy them."
Hebrews 13:9, The Message


I don't like to admit when I have questions of faith. I feel like whatever I say might do something to disprove the God I believe in. But that's something I can't do: disprove God. But lately, some beliefs, supposedly Christian beliefs, have seemed to disprove God to me. Seemed. They haven't, but they sure have set me off into a whirlwind of questioning.

Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living for the human being." For the most part, I believe this is true. How can we believe those things on which we stake our lives without even considering their validity? But what I don't believe is that we must be determined to find every answer to every question. Some questions, we just can't answer. That's not to say they are unanswerable.

Faith, belief, and knowing are different from understanding. I believe that God is fully wise, even if I don't understand it. I don't have to. And so much of what has had me confused is people trying to make answers to questions they don't even understand, questions that really make no difference. And maybe that's an immature statement, and I'm willing to grow out of it. But there's no sense in stunting my growth.

"We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shine bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!"
1 Corinthians 13:12, The Message

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