Our pastor gave a short sermon the other day about Jesus’ concluding remarks following his sermon on the mount. Jesus concludes with,
Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell-and great was its fall! Mathew 7:24-27
It has been a while since I have posted anything on this blog. Many things have changed in the past year. I have decided to go back to academia to be a professor and am now doing a postdoc at Caltech. I spend most of my time now doing scientific research again and do not have time to write on this blog anymore, but my thoughts and questions never end. I have had many storms in the past year, but none of them were quite as difficult as the self imposed dissection of my faith.
Much of that dissection process is present here on this blog, but what is here and visible is a collection of thoughts and questions that are still incomplete and open. That intense time of inquiry was quite the storm for sure. Before the storm I had a rather comfortable home. It was by no means a mansion, but it was definitely large with all the amenities one would need so that it was not really necessary to venture outside. As the storm came, my house of faith shook to the very foundation and significant portions were destroyed [1]. My house had grown very large in size during college and much of it was built on sand. Those parts are now gone. The winds blew, the waters came and all that is left now is a basic frame with a roof.
In the context of the sermon I would like to believe that the reason I have anything left is because it is the only part that was built on rock. Everything else was superfluous. What is left is distinctly different from what was there before. I once had a very comfortable living environment that sheltered me from all of the difficult questions and unknowns. Now all I have is a basic frame with a roof. But don’t be fooled by its simplicity because that structure, although simple, is strong and can withstand any storm that comes its way. What is ironic is that many of the superfluous items that washed away in the storm would be considered by many Christians (but certainly not the majority) to be non-negotiable statements of faith.
Rob Bell has just come out with a new book called “Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.” It’s supposedly a very controversial book and virtually everyone and their dog has an opinion on it. I have only read the first few pages of the introduction on Amazon’s preview page. In that introduction he asks several powerful questions that I have been pondering over for the past several months, well before Rob even came out with his book. One of the Amazon reviewers made a comment that was very interesting. He said there are two types of people in the world, people that like questions and people that like answers. Rob Bell is a questions kind of guy. So am I. People like us like to ask questions that have no answers and we’re ok with it.
In discussions with my wife I have developed a similar dichotomy that includes people that like concepts and people that like details. The concept people would be like the people that enjoy questions and the details people are the people that like answers. I am a concept guy. I don’t like details because details without an underlying concept are useless to me. Laws and rules are made to accomplish a purpose. I focus on the purpose and not on the details, which can lead me to breaking the rules when they are counterproductive to accomplishing its purpose.
So what does that have to do with today’s sermon? Well its the frame that is left over from the storm. My faith is now quite simple in what I truly believe to be true and very gray on the rest of the details. It is more concept now than detail. For a while it was debilitating. Nobody walks away from a storm like that without some serious life changes. But the winds have calmed and the waters receded and I rest firmly now in my belief that God is good and it is up to Him to handle all the details that Christians have been bickering over for centuries.
I’ve come to realize that storms are an inherent part of life. The question isn’t if they come, it’s when they come. I’ve also realized that even though these storms are painful, they are also very good. They help us to weed out the superfluous parts of our lives so we can ask the hard questions. It’s possible that life’s storms may actually be opportunities for God to spend intimate time with each and every one of us while we wrestle with the fundamental questions that He hopes will inevitably lead us to a life built on a rock. Maybe that is why one of my favorite songs is “Let the waters rise” by Mikeschair.
[1] As I began this dissection process I knew full well that I was going to do some damage as I mentioned in a post long ago. I just didn’t know how much damage would occur.
