My faith journey

I was listening to a little old school Audio Adrenaline today (Underdog? Big House? - Classic.) and well, you know how music has that wonderful ability to bring back memories? Audio A got me a little nostalgic thinking back to around middle school. Specifically it reminded me about my faith at that time, and I started to examine how my ideas about the Christian faith have changed since then. So I thought I’d share just a few thoughts about my journey.

Life and the Christian faith was much simpler back then. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but that’s what it was. I was just stepping into an understanding of Christianity that I’d never had before as I started to grasp what having a relationship with God actually meant. I was attending a new church that talked about God in new ways and I started to be more committed about reading my Bible and attending youth group. It was a great time.

But oh how things change. I’m starting to wonder if there’s this curve with the faith journey. I thought that I would learn more and that the number of questions I had about faith would lessen as I gained more knowledge. But the opposite has happened. Questions either got more complicated or lead to more questions. Will there be a point in the future where the questions about faith will start to lessen? Maybe around 40? Will I start to figure things out eventually? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Is the Bible infallible?

Actually I’m very happy with where I’m at in faith right now, and although I have more questions than I had when I was in middle school, I feel that my faith is much more mature. I’ll give you a small example. Is the Bible infallible? Back then I would have probably said yes. Now I have to ask the question, what does the word infallible mean? I remember reading discussions about contradictions in the Bible. Many people have put a lot of effort into resolving details in the Bible that don’t seem to match up. For example, Judas’ death is described differently by Matthew in his gospel than by Luke in Acts. Can we allow for human error to come into the Bible? Is it possible that the writers are telling two stories that can’t be reconciled?

An Analogy

I submit that we can. I think we can even still say that the Bible is infallible, depending on your definition. Judas died, that much is clear. Is it reasonable to spend hours trying to reconcile two very short passages that describe the details differently? I don’t think so. It’s like two witnesses to a murder. They both identify the same murderer, but one says he wore a black shirt, and the other a blue. Is one lying? Should we discount both testimonies because they don’t agree on the details? Of course not. They identify the same murderer, and that is what’s most important.

So I’ve gone off on a little tangent. That’s just one small example of how my faith has changed. I still have tons of questions. But I love asking questions, I love exploring new viewpoints. I think a critical mind is a gift from God, and it’s the last thing we should put aside when examining our faith. How can looking at a Bible verse in a new way inhibit our faith? Depth comes from digging.

So while I’ve changed a ton since middle school, one thing hasn’t: I still think Audio Adrenaline rocks.

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