Asking Why Is A Natural Act

For many years, I thought that spiritual faithfulness was just a matter of being nurtured by the right people in the right way.

Likewise I believed that being skeptical about religious matters was also a matter of nurture, although I wasn’t sure if skepticism was “right” or “wrong.”

Recently I’ve been considering the distinct possibility that both faith and skepticism are part of our nature, that we are born with the God-given capacity for both.

For 11 years now, some people have raised an eyebrow when I call myself a faithful skeptic. A few don’t have a clue of what I’m talking about. Others have never heard “faithful” used to describe a “skeptic.”

Others would never have thought a faithful person could be skeptical. Still others have chosen to embrace faithful skepticism, too.

But my life has been both faithful and skeptical, though not always consciously at the same time, as it is now.

I believe being skeptical is an innate part of human nature. It certainly is when we realize that “skeptic” comes from the Greek word “skeptiko.” The word means “inquiring.”

It invites curiosity. It encourages “whys” people. How wonderful.

“Why” is one of the first monotonously repeated words of a toddler’s vocabulary. So much to learn, so little time! Yet “why” is the key that opens doors to the entire world we see and can’t see.

So why can’t adults have as much fun asking that question as little children do? Why, indeed!

Faithfulness also is an innate part of human nature. A case can be made that we really learn to be unfaithful.

Being faithful to your self, to someone else, to something greater than yourself, can be fun, too.

Being faithful is a central part of God’s covenant with the world and us who inhabit it. God created us with the same capacity to be faithful, even though we join our ancestors in diligent unfaithfulness.

Our faithless actions and attitudes fortunately do not deter God from being unswervingly faithful. Thank God!

But for me, being skeptical is easier than being faithful. Fortunately I don’t see being “faithful” and being “skeptical” as mutually exclusive. In fact, they are two adjectives that help describe my effort to find a balanced rhythm in my life.

Take my spirituality, for instance. (As illustrative only, please. I actually hope you take your own spirituality seriously enough to examine it.)

I find being faithful to my connection with God through Jesus and through other people is increasingly critical and important to the very living of my life.

But being faithful doesn’t preclude either my right to ask “Why?” or my need for skepticism about that connection. In fact, I would find it impossible to be faithful to a God who wasn’t big enough to field the countless questions in my heart and on my lips!

Fortunately, the God I find in the Bible and in my life is big enough for those questions. I also find the church’s God is gracious enough and strong enough for the most disturbing of our questions.

It is God’s church, God’s people, who are sometimes too small for my questions! I find it is so frustrating to watch people spiritually beat up on each other over biblical interpretations, over the color of church carpets or who can use a church kitchen.

And it’s sometimes demoralizing to watch the control games that happen in local churches, in denominations, in TV and radio ministries, in political arenas from local school boards to the U.S. Congress - all in the name of “religion.” Lord, deliver us all from this kind of religious faith!

My faith is strongest when I remember that the God of Jesus is the God of the whole world, not to mention all of the world’s religions. My skepticism is strongest when I see us tell other people, and even God, that our form of being faithful is the only way that God will accept us and work with us.

At best, that’s foolishness. At worst, spiritual arrogance.

I must plead guilty to both attitudes at times. My faithful skepticism challenges me to do no less, but also a whole lot more, as I continue on my own spiritual journey.

What are you skeptical about in your attempts to be faithful? I’d like to know! I really would.

You know how to reach me. Please do.

xxxx

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Paul Graves The Spokesman-Review