#the collected letters of cs lewis volume 3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

500wordtheology · 2 years

Text

When We Do Not Know

As Christians, there will be times along our journey when we simply do not know certain things. It does not matter if you are a milk drinker or meat eater, early in your walk or reaching the golden years when it is nearly time to leave life on this earth. No matter how much you learn - and remember that Christians are called to question and learn continuously - there will be much more still to discover.

So what do we do about that?

What do we do, for example, when we encounter a topic or question that, in spite of our best efforts, we can’t seem to answer?

For starters, we need to be certain we are differentiating between having NO answer and not PREFERRING the answer we have. As discussed in the past, many people unfortunately conflate these two things, saying “because I don’t like the answer, I will treat it as if there is no answer.”

But even when you are certain you are not letting subjective emotions cloud your open seeking of Objective Truth, when it comes to God there will be moments in your life when you simply won’t have all the answers you desire. There are things that only come after this little blink of existence is over. As Paul says “Now we see through a glass darkly (full verse).”

God includes mystery. Not in the flippant “God works in mysterious ways” sense, but in the real, true, deep mystery of things bigger than we can currently imagine. Literally “the unimaginable.”

This can make us uncomfortable. It is good to acknowledge that, too. It does none of us any good to pretend or put on a false front. Honesty and truth are what we’re after, after all.

We can be uncomfortable in the midst of mystery. We can readily admit when we do not know something. Yet in those moments, the thing to do is to return to what you DO know.

Know that God loves you. Even in the midst of confusion or turmoil, that is a place of refuge and of rest. When you feel overwhelmed by seeking, and things feel unfathomable (which it ought to at least some of the time, if you are truly seeking the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe and the Objective Ground of Truth, Love, and Being!), return to the starting place that everything else flows from. God loves you, more than you can presently comprehend.

Have peace. Any who trust in God can trust that he will lead you to more and more wisdom and knowledge. It may be today, or next year, or even only after we enter the next stage of existence. But he holds all truth, and he shares it with delight as we grow and become more capable of grasping it.

Know what you know, and keep seeking what you do not. Seek with your all, and any time you are unsure, return to the solid rock that is God’s love and grace. Rest up in that embrace, and then strike out again with renewed strength and joy. Seek all your days, and revel in both the majesty revealed and the mystery still to come.

# # #

This post concludes the 500 Word Theology blog. I want to thank everyone who has come along to read it over the years. I hope the words here were beneficial to you. I may return now and again if need be, with a new update or note, but for now we will close this chapter and start another.

As CS Lewis once wrote:

“There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.” (The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3)

And as we speak of Lewis (as we have so often here on this blog) I invite you to come visit C.S. Lewis and Beyond, which will be my next project. There my goal is to share quotes from the great author that are perhaps less well-known or widely posted. It is a wonderful thing to see people sharing quotes from works like Screwtape and Mere Christianity, but there is a sad shortage of things from others like God in the Dock and That Hideous Strength! Let’s fix that. :)

Visit “C.S. Lewis and Beyond” here.

#cs lewis #God #theology #Knowledge #Seeking #Truth #objectivetruth #mystery #understanding #peace

3 notes · View notes