11. faith and dobut

I'm reading this book by Philip Yancey called _Reaching for the Invisible God_ and it's all about the stuff I've been thinking (and writing) about lately. One of the best things (so far) about the book is that it doesn't try to answer the questions I have about God, rather it gives suggestions, hints, clues, choices which I find comforting. I'm pretty sure if he were to say, "here's steps one, two, and three of how to have a vibrant relationship with God," I'd throw the book out the window - that's not the kind of relationship I want to have.

Anyway, one of the things Yancey suggests is that the question, "why," is not a very useful one when it comes to understanding one's situation because the question is a backwards-looking one - it forces one to focus on the path. While "why" is the most obvious question it turns out to be a futile one. More useful questions might be something like what am I to learn from this situation, how is this helping me to grow, what is this bringing out of me?

In a sense (and now this is my bit, not Yancy's, so if it's bunk, don't blame him) the question, why, is a trap - it doesn't go anywhere and in the grand scheme of things (and remember, the universe is 158 billion light years wide...that's a pretty grand scheme) we probably couldn't understand why even if God were to try and explain himself.

So here's where faith comes in. Faith says, "I don't understand but I'll keep going anyway)." I'm still digesting that idea but it does seem to make sense.

Anyway, it's a great book. I'll probably be writnig more about it in the days/weeks to come. Until then,

God Bless,
randall