Certainty or humility (November, 2005)

Please forgive my incredibly late post. I'm back-dating this so it archives for November. 12/13/2005.

Jay is dismayed at the smugness of "the people who never seem to have doubts and questions and are sure about everything." He admonishes us: "Perhaps we need to return to our sources. Are you alive yet in Jesus?"

What I appreciated:

• "In the end, being a Jesus follower is not about knowing everything but about trusting him."
  


• "Only in the light of God, in Jesus the light of the world, do we see, know, and experience spiritual, intellectual, and moral light. And this light comes not from us gathering accurate information about the world, but from knowing God. It does not come from us looking at the frame, but looking in the mirror."
  


• [David Myers:] "As a Christian monotheist, I start with two unproven axioms: 1) There is a God. 2) It' not me (and it's also not you). Together, ... these axioms imply my surest conviction: that some of my beliefs (and yours) contain error."
  


• "When orgainzations and structures and denominational and local church politics overwhelm our sense of mission and compassion, we are spending too much time looking at the frame and not enough time looking at the mirror [of James 1:22ff]."
  

Smug people put me off, too. Sometimes, though, when I get a little closer, I find that they're less certain than they appear, wrestling with their own contradictions (and maybe reacting to them). And I can get on my soapbox, too, putting others off. We all need God's love and mercy.

Are we forced to choose between certainty and humility, as the title suggests? Can we walk humbly with God, yet as Luke says, know "the certainty of the things we have been taught?" Not a certainty that makes everything black or white, but one that holds fast to the core truths our culture ruthlessly berates.

I think about a Christian standing before God on the last day. A slave owner who never questioned slavery's morality. Think of the shock, the horror, the devastation in having God reveal this gaping blind-spot with all creation watching.

You are that person. In God's eyes (and who else matters?), our blind-spots may be just as big: things you never questioned, or dismissed easily. How does that make you feel? It humbles me.

May God take us to the mirror, revealing our smug blind-spots so we might repent. And may we, in the midst of our own doubts, walk humbly beside both the uncertain and the smug, loving each as Jesus would and pointing each to Him.