Reflections for 3/22/10

"The answer will come out of the tempest, an answer that cannot always be verbalized to your children and husband or wife. But it will be an answer that you know. It is a conviction that is deep and all pervasive. No one can give it to you, no one can take it away; It is a gift from God. You cannot prove it to anyone, but you no longer need to. Believe me when I say it: The deepest levels of faith will still feel like confusion-but you are no longer confused by your confusion!" (R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 134)

There are often things given that are packaged as the answer, yet often times there is something that comes along to undermine that answer, or to at least cause more questioning.

There are certainly more things in life that happen that make very little sense to me. There are times when what I thought I knew to be obvious, become a little less clear. And yet the muddledness of life has yet to make me want to throw up my arms and quit. I don't know why it is but I have no problem with ambiguity or living in the gray areas of life. I have a higher tolerance for the unknown. There are often times when things become clearer or work themselves out and I have no idea how or why. Yet I can live with the unknowing and maybe that's faith to a certain extent.

I do not have a rational well organized argument for why I believe, I just know that I do. I'm also not interested in wasting time in debate over it, either with non-believers or even believers sometimes.

I do tend to follow my gut, especially when I'm feeling brave. And those times when I chicken out, I'm often surprised by how my initial call the one that if I'd stayed with it, would have been proven to be right.

Blessings,
Ed