This Christmas break, when preparing for our Wednesday night high school Bible study, our youth minister, Steven, and I were attempting to come up with some questions for our youth group to chew on and discuss. Some of the questions we thought about were deeper than others, but lately there had been one question on my mind, "Why do you keep faith in God?" The question was so simple to many, but the answer was complex when thought about for an adequate amount of time. Not many of our youth had processed a question like that.
When we ended up asking the question to the students, I wanted to avoid one sentence answers in hopes that the youth group would really try to process the question. The answers were interesting. Some were cliche, others were the beginning stages of thinking the question out. But they asked me, and I realized the question is complicated yes, but it is even more complicated when you only have a few minutes to deliver your answer. It is more complex then that. Faith isn't a sentence or a statement, it is a story. For the kids in my youth group, this story had hopefully just begun. Mine was at least a little farther down the spiritual timeline, although not much. I wasn't highly satisfied with my answer at the time, and by the end of this blog, I probably still won't be satisfied. But hopefully by the end of it we have a common starting place, and maybe you will share a little bit of your reasons with me.
Throughout the Bible you can't really find any clear answer for where God came from. In fact, you can't really find anywhere where an author was defending the idea that God exists. Paul says "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." (Romans 1:20) That may be the closest we can get to a proof. Paul says that nature just screams "Creator!" and it points us to that very creator. I don't know how much nature has played a part in my faith, but I know I have seen awe-inspiring and beautiful things in his creation. Still not where my faith is found. But I think we have this idea that the opposite of faith is doubt. A wise man once told me "The opposite of faith is not doubt, it is certainty." When you are certain about what you have faith in, it becomes knowledge not faith.
We were talking about postmodern trends in my Congregational Ministry class. And we were addressing Modernity in this discussion as well. (Trust me this is going somewhere.) Throughout all of the discussion on Modernity, I could see that it was deeply rooted in this rational thinking, this idea that God can be captured (in the sense that he can be understood). And it is evident in today's preaching, in today's teaching, in today's bumper stickers, in today's thinking of God as a whole. The modern mind has put God in thesis statements, protest signs, and song lyrics, and I believe our faith and theology has slowly become just a hodge-podge of those different ideas. "God is always there for me" "God is my best friend", etc. and although these statements are true at some level, we replace them for authentic, original and well-developed thoughts about God.
The Bible, obviously, is a key tool in attempting to understand God, but our rational thinking has made the Bible our key to understanding everything about God. In some sense, we believe that we can truly know God in every facet just by reading the Bible, experiencing nature, or participating in some spiritual discipline. Even though these three activities are completely necessary in developing a relationship with the Father, the goal is never to obtain full understanding.
I am reminded of this grandness when I read God's response to Job. Job and his friends have spent the entire book questioning God, and talking as if they knew everything about God, and for 4 straight chapters (Job 38-41) God reminds Job of just how limited his understanding is. Go ahead and read it. Be humbled by it. And understand that it doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of who God is. The Bible doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the great and mighty things God has done. How could it? How can something that I can count the letters, sentences, verses, paragraphs, chapters and books, something that has an "In the beginning" and an "Amen", something that is written by humans, ever begin to capture an infinite God.
Please, please, please do not misunderstand me here. THE BIBLE IS INSPIRED AND AUTHORITATIVE. Hopefully, since it is in all caps we can understand that. But we can never equate Bible knowledge with knowledge of who God truly is. Can't be done. But I do have a deeper appreciation that it gives me the best attempt at understanding it. Everything in there about God is true, but he is infinitely more.
That helps my faith so much more. I don't believe in God because "everything makes sense." It still doesn't make sense why babies die, why nations are devoured with disease, why I go through tough times, but I serve a God who is so big that it makes it ok for things not to make sense. A God who is infinite, all-powerful, all loving, all just.
