“The more you know the less you are certain of.” So says The Roper Book of Roperisms. A few days ago I was talking with a friend and colleague. We were discussing some complex theological issue and he blurted out, “You are a liberal.” Now I have been called a lot of things in my life but being a liberal is not generally one of them.
What could have elicited such a comment from my friend Sam? I think it is summed up in my opening line, “the more you know the less you are certain of.” Early in my journey with Jesus I wanted certainties, absolutes, rules, truth, commandments: in other words, I wanted things to be very black and white.
In my search for certainty I found complexities. In my search for Truth I found a Person. In my search for commandments I found Love.
Now, I have become very comfortable with ambiguity because I have come to trust in a Person, not a system of belief. I have moved from believing in things to believing in Him. I trust him who is the truth, I do not believe in the truth in a void, an impersonal abstract, but in the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Lately I have begun to think of it as living in the land of “And.” Perhaps I will coin a new word, “Andology.” I like this word. Since I coined it, I will define it. I define Andology as living in the sacred middle between two opposites. Living between creation and revelation; between truth and love; between the individual and the community; between local and global; between unity and diversity; between power and weakness; between certainty and mystery; between commission and commandment; between history and the future; between work and rest; between East and West; and maybe even between Rob Bell and John MacArthur.
It could be because I travel so much. I am in and out of so many cultures and histories that I can no longer tell you for sure what all the facts are about any subject. Maybe I have learned that where you stand depends on where you sit. Yes, the more I learn the less I am certain of. But One remains and holds me through it all, for “I know in whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which have committed to him against that day.”
My Christian faith is not based on holding to a certain set of “religiously correct” doctrines supported by the powers that be. Thankfully, my salvation is not based on my knowledge or my works. It is based on Christ and what he has done for the whole world. “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” I trust in the person Jesus Christ. I find him constantly occupying the shrouded shadow lands called And. I am very comfortable with that now. I have hope that one day that shroud will be lifted, “for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (I Cor 13:12, ESV)
Debbie and I serve as the FMI Global Associate Director for MENACA and Europe. We focus on cultivating disciples, leaders, and church planting movements.
