Questioning, a Spiritual Practice

I find that as I have more and more experienced God in a personal 2-way relationship, the more safety I feel to question things about the theology I have been taught.  In the past I think there was always a subconscious fear that if I asked certain questions, or raised certain inconsistencies, it might leave me on shaky ground where I no longer knew what I believed or truly belonged to my religious group.  When my faith was chiefly resting on the doctrines that I aligned myself with, those doctrines were my security blanket.  However as I come to know God as a relational personality with whom I can interact and dialogue, and who is willing to engage with me in that way as often as I pursue it, then that relationship becomes a much firmer security for me.   

The more that I interact with Him the more I find the parts of my doctrine which truly feel like good news to be true and actively functioning in the world and in my experience.  On the other hand, the parts of that doctrine which do not feel like good news, I find I am safe to question—not out of suspicion that part of God’s word may be untrue, but out of acknowledgement that I am not yet fully understanding it.  I KNOW God, and so as I read about His movements in the different contexts of world history, I am not afraid to find that He may have been someone else.  I’m confident in who He is.  Seeking to understand how He has shown Himself throughout time is not a dangerous endeavor, but rather it is a treasure hunt.  The more I discover, the more lovely He becomes, and the richer my relationship with Him.

 

The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.  In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God. John 16:25-27

I made known to them Who You are, and I will continue to make It known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:26

On Hearing God

 A spouse, with a timely glance toward an attentive lover, can wordlessly communicate via lines of shared neural pathways.  God, however, has no need of the optical component.  His glance, rather, I experience as a sudden recognition or reminder of truth which He has previously enabled me to know.