What if I’m not certain what I believe?

Faith is more about trust in God

The Rev. Lew Hinshaw, associate pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt.:

Uncertainty about beliefs is not necessarily unspiritual.

Uncertainty may signal the humility needed to clarify or grow one’s beliefs. If I claim absolute certainty, I claim to be complete spiritually. “God is finished with me!” Who can legitimately make that claim? The deeper spiritual people I know say less about the certainty of their beliefs and more about how their beliefs compel them to live.

For some, faith means to agree with certain doctrines (for Christians, the virgin birth of Jesus, for example). In this view, doctrines are truth in unequivocal language, so certainty of belief is a necessity. Creeds are “tests” of faith. If you agree with them, you’re a believer. If you don’t agree, you’re a heretic. Creeds don’t help the uncertain very much.

For others, faith is more than just what can be put into words. In this view, intellectual doubt is not incompatible with faith. Faith is about how a person is drawn to the sacred, about relationship with God. It is more about trust in God than about orthodoxy. Creeds are “testimonies” of faith rather than “tests.” Uncertainty about a particular doctrine, or even all doctrines, does not disqualify a person’s claim to be spiritual or to be a Christian.

The Bible counsels those of uncertain belief to seek and to ask. It suggests that God’s search for us precedes our search for God, so the likelihood of finding God is high. I believe what we find in our spiritual search is the holy one, who alone is truth and who can be trusted as no mere human words or ideas can be.

And, I believe, instead of absolute certainty, we find something far more important — amazing grace.

Send e-mail to the Rev. Lew Hinshaw at lewhinshaw@sunflower.com.

Common prayer can deepen faith

The Rev. Jonathon Jensen, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, 1011 Vt.:

I frequently hear this question and others like it both at church and around Lawrence. The concern is usually in the form of a statement, such as, “I want to believe in God, or that the stories of the Bible are true, but it’s hard, or I can’t.”

The main difficulty lies in what one understands belief or faith to be. Often when one thinks of institutional religion, what comes to mind are commandments or propositional statements or the necessity to check one’s mind at the door of the church, as if we are to suspend belief in everything else we know to be true. It’s hard to believe in that.

Belief or faith, at its heart, is about entering into a relationship with God. As persons, we can best be in relationship not with commandments or statements or ideas but another person. In Christianity, our belief is based on a relationship with Jesus Christ, who we believe is God incarnate as a person.

In the Episcopal Church, we have long held that we pray what we believe and we believe what we pray. The best way to begin or deepen one’s faith is to practice common prayer with a faith community that is asking similar questions.

If you want to practice and learn what faith in a living God is, find a faith community and start as you are. In the words of Jesus, “Come and see.”

Send e-mail to The Rev. Jonathon Jensen at jwj@trinitylawrence.org.