Wonder and Belief

Cynics look high and low for wisdom—and never find it; the open-minded find it right on their doorstep! (Proverbs 14:6 MSG)

I found this quote this morning by famous trial lawyer, Gerry Spencer:

"I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief."

Interestingly, I found this quote after watching Dean's wonderful protrayal last night of Caiaphas.  Caiaphas was portrayed in that drama as one who had his mind closed by belief.   Faith and belief are  are necessary when we are talking about the things of God.    The writer of Hebrews says, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."  Faith and belief are intrinsically tied to our relationship with God.  We have to have it.

But blind, dogmatic belief can actually hurt our relationship with God.  Look at Caiaphas.  He was a man of God.  He was the High Priest at the Temple.  He was one of the few allowed in behind the curtain to the Holy of Holies... into the presence of God.  He had his own "hot line" so to speak.  And yet when he really met God in the Flesh, face to face, he did not know Him.  His belief blinded his wonder.  Caiaphas' belief system was based on the interpretaion of scripture by the most intellegent religious scholars of the time.  He was taught all these things since he was a young boy and knew the scriptures and Jewish law very well.  The trouble was, their interpretation of scripture as it pertained to the coming Messiah was wrong.  And there was no room in Caiaphas' belief system for wrong.

Our own study of the Bible and our religious beliefs should not be one that closes our minds, but one that opens our minds and our hearts to wonder.  The more we study, the MORE questions we should have.  If we could figure God out, he wouldn't be God.  When we claim we have the whole truth about who God is, we run a very real danger of missing him even when we see him face to face.  And   like Caiaphas, we just might - in our eagerness to promote religious dogma - crucify him all over again.

Lord Jesus,
Keep our hearts and minds open to the wonder of our faith and belief enough that we will recognize you no matter how you come to us.  Amen.

Joys:  Wonderful Lenten drama series that helps us to dig more deeply into our faith; a nice phone chat with Kevin... his job and family keep him pretty busy and I miss him; an unexpected sleepover with Cecelia Tuesday night