Faith Seeking Understanding

This morning I read Greg Taylor’s post about a tough question that his son asked, along with Sara’s comment warning against the temptation to give kids “pat answers.”  It reminded me of a conversation I had with Jeremy this week.

I’ve been reading 1 Samuel with Jeremy and Jonathan.  It’s been encouraging to see their interest—Jonathan’s most-requested song has long been “Only A Boy Named David.”  One night this week, as I as trying to get them into bed so I could collapse, one of them asked, “Daddy, can we read the Bible?”  How could I say no?

Well, even an action book like 1 Samuel isn’t without its theological mysteries.  We got to the part about Saul being afflicted by “an evil spirit sent by the Lord.”  I hoped they wouldn’t notice that part.  I wasn’t so lucky.

One day after we had read that, Jeremy said – “Daddy, that’s not right.  God doesn’t send people evil spirits.”  Humm….

I didn’t really have a good answer.  I did tell Jeremy that we shouldn’t say that the Bible isn’t right, we should just say, “I don’t understand that part.”

The children’s Bible that we’re reading from actually did have a comment.  It says that God sent the evil spirit to punish Saul for his disobedience.  Maybe, but there’s one part where Saul has resolved to be nice to David, invites him back to his house, and then the “evil spirit sent from the Lord” returns and Saul hurls a spear at David.  Saul was trying to be nice; why couldn’t that spirit leave him alone?  I don’t understand that one either.

I don’t understand …

Is it okay to say that?  Do we have to have all the answers, or can we acknowledge that some of God’s ways are just beyond us, and still hang onto faith even though we don’t always have understanding.

I think it was Anselm who defined theology as “faith seeking understanding.”  The operative word here is “seeking.”  We may or we may not find, and faith doesn’t always depend on understanding, but rather seeks it.

In the past, I’ve been guilty of a kind of gnosticism – thinking that salvation was based on understanding, rather than on faith.  I don’t want my sons to grow up thinking like that.  I want them to embrace faith, while they seek understanding.