Platitudes

"You simply need to have more faith" --a well meaning friend.

I have always been that guy who asked the tough questions in Sunday School.

"Why would God allow people to be born if he knew that he wouldn't choose them for salvation and then punish them for being what they were born to be?"

"Why did God wait 6,000 years to bring a messiah?"

"If God won't remove this sin from my life, then what exactly am I being saved from?"

They are tough questions. And I have wrestled with them for as long as I can remember having rational thoughts about anything. Sometimes the questions have brought me to tears. Sometimes they have led me away from where I wanted to be. Sometimes they have sat on the back burner for years before I even realized they were there. I have held my devotion ransom to get answers. I have yelled and sneered. I have begged and pleaded. But whatever my tactic, I have always asked.

That is why it is so frustrating when a well meaning friend told me yesterday, "You just need to have more faith." We had gotten to the point in the discussion where they couldn't answer me anymore. The truth they were trying to get me to accept was illogical. It made God into a twisted monster.  It didn't allow him to be Love he must also be Just and for some reason those two things are not compatible.  And when I asked them to explain why this wasn't so, they patiently explained to me that it is a "mystery".

Now I'm all for mysteries. I love mysteries. I think the evangelical church could do with a few more Divine Mysteries. But a logical fallacy is not a mystery. Its a problem. And problems need to be solved.

"Oh, but you are seeking after Human wisdom. The Wisdom of God is not something man can understand."

Phooey.

The "Wisdom of God" is Jesus. Jesus is the revelation of God to Man. He is the embodiment of all Divine Wisdom--embodied in human flesh. I don't expect to understand God fully any time in the near future. In fact, I'm looking forward to plumbing the endless depths of His beauty and fullness for the rest of Eternity. But God has gone to great lengths to reveal himself to us. He spent 30 years as one of his own creation demonstrating to us who He is. And this follows 6,000 years of revelations to his people, and precedes the indwelling of his own Spirit within us to teach and guide and transform us. To simply pass off difficult questions as being above our pay grade seems rather ungrateful.

Which brings me back to the original helpful suggestion. "You need to have more faith." Faith in what, exactly? Faith that the endless parade of sermons I've heard have been completely accurate? Faith that my branch of Christianity is the center around which all other branches revolve? Faith that the codifying theological statements made by men just as endowed with the Holy Spirit as I am are flawless? Which men shall I choose?  Which translation should I choose?  Which denomination?  How many more branches does the protestant branch need to have before we realize that maybe we are the problem?

I will tell you what I have faith in. Or rather, Who I have faith in. Whenever I ask these questions, I expect to get an answer. Maybe not now and maybe not one I was expecting. But an answer is inevitable. I believe this with all of my being because I worship a God who reveals himself to us. Who is a Person--the Ultimate Person--not a doctrinal statement. I seek after God Himself and he has promised me that I will find him. I would not be the first to sacrifice something to gain Him. And to that end I will hold nothing dear, not even my own theology.

I have faith in God. And like Job, like Hannah, like Isaiah and like Paul I will beg and plead and question and argue and grapple with my understanding of Him until I know Him.

And that, my friend, is the kind of faith that you should have too.