Too Much Understanding, Not Enough Faith

In this, the information age, our society tries to understand TOO much. How is that possible? When we try to explain the unexplainable, usually by diminishing it to a level where mere humans can make sense out of it.

You see, the whole concept of faith, especially faith in God, is belief in things unseen. When a child is very young, his understanding of the world is very limited. Inevitably there are important things that his parents tell him that they are not able to rationalize. In those cases, parents usually say something like, "trust me, it’s for your own good," or "you know I would never tell you anything that would hurt you."

Some of us were fortunate enough to have loving, caring parents as small children, and others were not. We all have our Father in heaven who will love us, through his Son Jesus Christ, regardless of how much money we possess, what type of job we have, the color of our skin, or yes, even our sexual orientation. He tells us many times in the Bible that the most blessed of us will come to him like children.

We can ALL trust our Father when he tells us that if we love him, accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, and seek forgiveness of our sins (repent) we will receive eternal glory in heaven. I don’t understand how that is all possible, and how we will eventually rise up again and walk the earth. Thankfully, I don’t have to; I just need to have the faith to accept that it will all work out as God has promised us.

Another of the many things I don’t understand about this world is why some people are straight and others are homosexual. I won’t even offer any theories as to why God does that; I’m smart enough to know when I’m out of my depth.

Unfortunately, many pious religious leaders do not exercise that type of discretion. Instead, they have determined that, since they do not believe homosexuality is acceptable it must be a sin. They’ve even twisted the interpretation of several scriptures to "prove" their point.

Taking that "logic" a step further, they can’t exactly preach that God made people with a natural inclination to sin. Therefore, it must be an individual’s "choice" to act as a homosexual, and any choice, like that of drinking alcohol or using drugs, can be changed with enough prayer, therapy, rehabilitation, and a little condemnation thrown in for good measure.

By preaching this message as the gospel truth, those who practice it are becoming a major divisive force in this country. That’s okay with them, however, because they can explain, rationalize, justify and use any other logical method to tell you why they are right and everyone who has a different view is wrong.

From where I sit, I think the Religious Right needs to do less "understanding" and more believing in the message of Jesus Christ, the message of love and inclusion.

God says many times in the Bible that His ways surpass all understanding. So it is okay not to know everything, filling in the holes with faith in his promises to us, the children he loves so much.