Tension

Friday mornings are the highlight of my week. Each Friday I meet before the rooster crows with about 6 key men in the Young Adults ministry at McKinney. We read something throughout the week that pertains to life, ministry, or leadership, and then come together to discuss it.

Right now, we're slogging through a book that highlights prominent discussions in evangelical theology from both sides (everything from Calvinism/Arminianism, to the role of women in ministry). We've had some great conversations, and I think it has been a real boost in helping all of us think and lead more theologically.

One of the things I've noticed though, through this study and others I've done in the past, is that we have an innate desire... almost need to resolve all the tension in Scripture. We are drawn towards elaborate formulas, systems, and positions that purport to logically explain the way God works, and often find ourselves in a ditch.

We need to pursue all the knowledge we can about how God works, when God works, and for whom God works, but need to release ourselves of the need to relieve tension that God seems to have intended.

God could have solved the Sovreignty/human freedom debate with one or two verses. He could have solved the age of the earth debate with a quick paragraph about those pesky dinosaurs. But He chose not to. And I think we're probably headed for error if we ever get to a point in any of those areas where we think we've resolved all the tension on a particular issue.

Just a thought, but if godly, well-educated men have dedicated their life to understanding a particular issue and haven't reached an agreement, the issue might not be with their godliness... the issue might be instead with the fact that we're serving a God who transcends more systems than we think.