“Searching Faith or Certain Faith?”
Wanting to know everything can be a mental burden, not to mention a waste of time. The amount of information on the internet is virtually endless. Swiping through video after video only leads to more videos and before you know it a few hours of your life have slipped away. One thing I struggle with is the endless questions relating to spiritual life—the answers almost always lead to more questions. Even Solomon in his lifelong quest for wisdom and knowledge sums it up as “a chasing after the wind.” In another passage he uses the word meaningless (or vanity) which in the most literal, Hebrew translation is the word vapor—like your breath on a cold winter’s day, you see it and then it’s gone. In the same way trying to understand and grasp life is as futile as trying to catch your breath.
There was an interesting opinion article written in the Harvard student newspaper a couple years ago. The author, who was an economics major, was trying to figure out why Harvard students have higher-than-average rates of depression and suicide. His theory was that it’s because they’re so smart. And he quotes something Woody Allen said, “It’s very hard to keep your spirits up. You’ve got to keep selling yourself a bill of goods, and some people are better at lying to themselves than others. If you face reality too much, it kills you.” The Harvard student concluded by saying, “My hunch is that being intelligent makes it harder to sell yourself a bill of goods.”
Sometimes our intellect, or the pursuit of it, is actually the one thing standing in the way of truly seeing. The Apostle Paul says that God has chosen the foolish things to perplex the wise. In light of all the complexities of life and all its mysteries it’s easy to get caught up in trying to figure everything out, and in the process miss the complex yet simple mystery of faith. Coming to this realization is more transformational than having every mystery solved and every theology figured out and neatly packaged. Sometimes I think we’re asking too many questions and probably not the right ones.
I once heard an account of Billy Graham visiting a former pastor who was in the hospital dying. He admitted that he had spent his whole life searching for God and was never able to be certain of his faith. Billy Graham later used that conversation in one of his crusades when he asked the question, “Is your faith a searching faith or a certain faith?” I think the words of this hymn say it so beautifully:
My faith has found a resting place,
Not in device nor creed,
I trust the ever-living One,
His wounds for me shall plead.
I believe the real turning point in our lives comes through trusting and being certain in not knowing. The upside down kingdom coming through again. Not needing to have it all figured out and being able to rest in that.
“The opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty. Doubt then is a part of faith.”
“Faith has no preconceptions; it’s a plunge into the unknown. Belief clings, but faith lets go.”