mystery

We are facinated by mystery. It's all around us. A cursory look at the top television shows reveals a penchant for mystery. Be it a CSI, House, 24 or Lost it is mystery that attracts us. We want to be the first to figure it out, to be able to say "I knew it!", to guess the twist ending.

So why is it when the issue of faith arises too often we try to shy away from mystery. When a discussion of faith arises it all to quickly turns to questions of "how do you know its true?" Honestly, I think Christians are too often to blame for that. We've tried to replace faith with absolute proof. What we've forgotten is what the English missionary and professor Leslie Newbigin pointed - that everyone has faith in something. Fatih is not the exclusive right or territory of religion and spirituality. Even in science there is a great deal of faith practiced. This is simply because there is so much mystery in our world. No matter how much we learn, no matter how much we figure out new questions are raised. Which brings me back to my own faith in Jesus Christ. How can we ever claim to know all that there really is to know about God? Why to we try so hard to put it all into a neat little package complete with a bow and ribbon? Rob Bell says in his book Velvet Elvis, "It's not so much that the Christian faith has a lot of paradoxes. It's that it is a lot of paradoxes. And we cannot resolve a paradox. We have to let it be what it is. Being a Christian then is more about celebrating mystery than conquering it."

So I guess I am left with a question. Am i willing to embrace the mystery of Christ, of God? Or am I going to constantly climb a never ending mountain trying to erase the mystery from my faith? I choose to embrace it.