Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way.
1 Peter 3:15&16a
I was reading the New Testament the other day, it was the part where John the Baptist is preparing the way for Jesus and there was this little verse that I noticed. The verse said that John was baptizing all these people and everyone was clamoring to be baptized by him, then the verse ends by saying, “This was before John was imprisoned and beheaded.” Wow. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but my first thought was, “Well of course it was before he was beheaded!”
There are little verses like this scattered throughout the Bible; little redundant tidbits thrown in, and so, so many genealogies… Sometimes I just want to ask God why? Why was that little verse about John more important than answering whether or not you made aliens? Or what about a few verses to settle the Old Earth, New Earth debate? Once saved, always saved? Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons? There are so many things I would have loved an extra verse on over being told that John was baptizing people before he lost his head. (Well to be honest, the belly button thing doesn’t really interest me that much, but I have heard about heated debates in churches over this topic.)
My husband and I were talking over breakfast a few days later. We were discussing things like: the end times, aliens, giants, world religions, eternity, dreams, and the relativity of time—you know normal breakfast conversation—and how does all this ever fit together?! I mentioned the verse about John and said wasn’t there something more pressing we could have been told? We laughed and our conversation wound down but still my thoughts wandered to that verse.
In my pondering I believe God allowed a little clarity for me. He could have spelled everything out; but then, what of faith? There are answers to everything we need to know about Christianity in the Bible. There are thousands of clues that can be researched and compared with other ancient texts to further ground what we have already read in the Bible, to explain more of the rather material questions that we seek. However, a lot of the answers that we seek in these areas are not fundamental to the core of our faith. Some answers we just won’t know in this life. That is where faith comes in. We have to have faith that He revealed everything that we need to know. We have to have faith that the things that He didn’t tell us were not told to us for a reason. We have to trust Him.
I trust fairly easily, not necessarily quickly, but easily. I tend to not get caught up on some of the really deep theological questions. Perhaps this is because I haven’t grown my knowledge in that specific area enough to know to question it. Perhaps it’s because I was raised in a Christian home and with that comes the innate belief that this is ultimately the truth. Perhaps it is laziness; if I don’t question then I don’t have to research, opening the door for even more questioning and researching. Or perhaps it is because I have questioned and researched, and been satisfied. My pivotal questions have been answered. I have found evidence for what I believe with respect to the core tenets of my beliefs and the gray areas are just that—gray areas. It is not the faith defining questions that I get held up on. No, it’s the little things that lead to my questioning; the gray areas are where I find myself most often. Not in the black areas of darkness where no valid answers present themselves. Not in the areas of stark white clarity such as the divinity of Christ where there is no mistaking where the Bible stands, but in the gray—the areas where there is room to question, learn, and ponder. I find I grow through this process. What growth have you ever experienced from something you never questioned? Growth happens in the questioning. Faith happens in the seeking. And, in eternity we will know.
I believe the answer to my question is there must be room for questioning so that it can in turn lead to growth. To some of these questions there will not be answers in this life. That is where faith comes in. If we were given every answer there could be no faith. There would be no reason for a relationship with Christ.
I urge you to do some digging to find evidence for the faith that you have. I urge you to be able to defend your beliefs, and I urge you to revel in the gray areas, where learning, faith and trust happen. I urge you to leave room for faith.