In college, I got a group of friends around me that were like me in that they believed in Jesus, but they were different in some surprising ways.
They talked about relationship with God in a different way than I’d ever considered. For them, the Christian walk was not so much about getting from spiritual point A to spiritual point B, but rather sauntering through God’s woods.
That happened in a very literal sense in the woods behind my cousin’s house. As a way to hang out, we‘d take the trail back to the creek and sit around and explore—get our feet wet on the sandbars, look at different kinds of rocks, and climb the various verdant trees. It was during this time that God challenged many of my assumptions about him. God no longer spoke to me only in commands and directions; He begin to spark my imagination, to ask me questions, give short visions, and challenge my very vocabulary. My faith was no longer as tame and safe as the one which had been imparted to me, but was now wild and often unpredictable, sometimes confusing. (Even today I wonder why he called me to work with children.) I encountered things in the Holy Spirit that I didn’t understand, and that was totally okay.
Thus we walk to the edge of the horizon of what we can understand and experience. Walking to the edge of our theology is like getting waist deep in the ocean that goes on and on…
As a matter fact, my cell phone can see through its camera lens, hear through its microphone, and feel my motions to a limited extent through its accelerometer, but doesn’t even have the capacity to record smells and tastes… entire dimensions of my being it has no capacity or even grid for. I think it’s much the same with God. How limited we are with nearly 5 senses!
A theology with no value for mystery is not a theology at all; it’s in idolatry.
My church was solid, but it wasn’t perfect. It taught me life-changing and foundational answers, but it never taught me how to delight in questions. I’m just now beginning to learn how little I know…
… and that’s OK with me.