Challenging
Your Belief System
There
are times in life when it feels as if everything about our
faith is sinking in sand. All the answers we have trusted don’t
seem to satisfy us any longer, and we begin to question what
we have always felt so sure of before.
It is always a risk
to question our belief system, and it takes a good measure
of courage to begin such questioning. When we are courageous
enough to give serious attention to such uncertain feelings
emerging in our soul, we can feel unsure as to who we are,
what our place is, and how our life makes any sense at all.
It’s this very risk of feeling so unsettled that keeps
many people from ever questioning the faith of their childhood.
Yet
God is much larger than our human concepts can ever define.
When we are willing to go deep down within and challenge
what we have known and believed, we find in the swirl of chaos
the
God beyond all conceptions. As the poet Ranier Maria Rilke
said, “deep in the darkness is God.” When we
overcome our fear of encountering that darkness, we find
what our hearts
long for, what our minds can only barely grasp, what our
soul only dimly imagines.
Stepping outside of what you know in order to glimpse what
you do not know does not necessarily lead you to a point
of forsaking your religious convictions. Rather, stepping
out
is a sign that you are on the search for God—God’s
self. Your soul is longing to know God without any pretense,
without easy answers, without the superficiality to which
religious systems sometimes fall prey. Whenever you search
for God alone—God
will be found.
It
may not be an easy journey—in fact,
it will probably be a tumultuous odyssey—but the God
who loved you into being is right by your side, waiting for
you to glimpse
the glimmer of His presence in surprising and unexpected
ways.
When your soul begins questioning the belief system you
have grown up with, it’s merely a signal that your soul is
searching for the pearl of great price—the pearl that
is God alone. God will honor your search and love you through
the journey.
Tip to try:
Write down three things that cause you to wonder about
the truth of your belief system. Choose one and begin to
explore
it deeply and fully through such things as:
