Pursuing Truth

But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Romans 1:18, NLT

Last night as I read this verse the section that struck out me was "suppress the truth".
This semester God has been challenging my forming of beliefs. More specifically what I believe to be true about him and our relationship with him. The challenge has come in attempting to understand and reconcile what I read in Scripture with my mental and moral constructs. This challenge leads to the question "Am I interpreting this passage correctly or does my lenses of understanding need to change?"

The greatest hindrance in facing this challenge has been my presuppositions and biases. Many of the beliefs I hold as true have come out of an intense wrestling in my being and to cast them aside for others would seem to trivialize the journey thus far. As my beliefs continue to grow and mature my being yearns to avoid "suppressing the truth" out of personal preference or because of persuasive personalities. My desire is for a humility that allows me to be wrong, but does not undermine that I could be right.

As my thinking is molded and refined my desire is avoid forcing what God intends to speak to us into some personal mental framework or place requirements upon God that I have developed from my finite perspective. Thereby mutilating God's message and marring his image. At some point I have to confess that I can never fully comprehend the infinite grandeur of God. While I press on to know God more intimately, I must still leave room for the mystery of the infinite.

My hope is to avoid the accusations of Romans 1:21-22

Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.

DOA

For most of us DOA stands for Dead on Arrival, but what God has been working in my life over the past couple of months has DOA standing for Danger of Academia. Through my studies and through Jess, God has reminded me of the need for knowledge to engage the whole being. Attending Seminary I have often found myself having to guard against education becoming a mental exercise or to be solely a matter of accumulating knowledge. This is what I have come to deem as the Danger of Academia.

Before anyone gets too excited and thinks I am going to recant my charge of anti-intellectualism within the contemporary Church and culture. I conversely, believe we need to avoid Blind Belief, which divides faith and thinking and refuses to allow the two to interact. The attitude is "I believe it and I don't need to think about it".

Both of these dangers need to be avoided. Education must transcend the mind, engage our spirit and flow out in our attitudes and actions. We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). In regards to belief I think Hosea said it best when he wrote the words,
"a people without understanding will come to ruin!" (Hosea 4:14). Ok, so he may have said it in Hebrew, but ya get my point. If we fail to follow Augustine's advice of faith seeking understanding, I fear we maybe DOA. While the Academic runs the risk of being spiritually dead, the blind believer runs the risk of being dead to the world God wishes to save.