Faith and Understanding

Those who read here know that I consider philosophy and theology very personal and as such we tend to take it personal when we are questioned on these things. Those who read here also know that although a blog is a public medium, I find its value is primarily relational and so it follows that personal issues are often made public on our blogs. I ask that all who read my thoughts would please accept that my understanding is not a public judgment against you or your ideology but a presentation of my personal beliefs and given here only as a means of strengthening our relationships through a better understanding of one another in the hope that any difference we might have could be resolved.

It seems that one of the most offensive things you can do to a believer is to challenge their perspective of God. This is quite understandable considering that each of us place great value on our personal knowledge of God. If someone indicates to us that our perspective may be incomplete or even slightly skewed it is as if they are saying “you do not know God” or “you obviously cannot be very close to Him”. The idea that we don’t have a firm grasp on the One who is at the very center of our being is truly repulsive and yet deep down we know it’s so. We strive to be near Him and long for His presence only to find that instead of focusing on Him, we looked far beyond Him and focused Him out of the picture that is our life. We need to ask ourselves, “How is it I missed seeing Him when He was so close?”

For myself I find that far too often the answer is that I’ve become so certain in my knowledge of Him that I can easily predict what He will reveal next. In that moment I cease to watch Him and learn of Him and instead rest in my certainty only to wakeup in a nightmare far away from Him. It’s in that moment that I can clearly see all the foolishness of my understanding and He makes it clear that in spite of my brilliant philosophy and finely tuned theology my next step toward Him can only be made through my faith in the certainty of His abiding love and care.