Sunday Series: Faith To Find The Answers...And To Admit We Don't Know Them

"I’ve been looking through windows into the night sky Wondering if all the prayers that I pray ever reach that high ‘Cause sometimes life can get so crazy, I can hardly make sense of it These are the times when I really discover what believing is I use my faith to find the answers to the harder things I lift my questions to the sky and find the peace it brings I do my best to solve the problems that are in my hands And I leave the rest up to Jesus, and He understands" - "Faith To Find The Answers," Cherie Call

This song is actually not on YouTube (at least not that I could find). How crazy is that? If you can find a way to listen to it, then great. The general message of this song is that we must turn to our faith when we need answers the most.

I had a great discussion with a friend on Friday night about a similar concept. We had been talking about our respective New Testament classes from last semester, and how differently they were taught (and it was a big difference). We mainly focused on authorship of the Epistles, and how many of them are uncertain. Soon, of course the topic turned to gospel principles and how sometimes we can be unsure of some of the most obscure of those. We talked about how sometimes it seems people receive contradictory revelations, and sometimes opinions are published as fact.

I really just want to discuss a point that our conversation came to more than once: admitting we don't know, and we might never find out in mortality. Sometimes it seems we can go to God with opinions and not get a "no" answer. I don't believe that necessarily means we are right. It might be what we need at that time, or it might be a small piece of a greater truth that our mortal minds cannot comprehend. There is an infinite number of ways to experience mortality, and to perceive it, and at some level, all are valid. Why, then, would that same principle not persist in eternity? There are the base truths, and our personal experience can build any direction from there.

Sometimes we don't know exactly what the answer might be, and we don't even know what we personally believe. In this situation, there are two options: to struggle and learn and attempt to form an opinion or belief, or to sit back and admit that we may never know, and let our faith carry us. Both are valid paths to take.

In the first path, we are striving towards an expansion of knowledge. We do learn useful things and become more knowledgeable along this path. We find ourselves in new places, meeting new people, and enriching our mortal experience. We may find an opinion that suits us, that we can live by, or we may not. Either way, attempting to learn is not a bad idea.

In the second path, we are striving towards an expansion of faith. This path, taken properly, means that we must have cultivated and nurtured our faith. We must be living and learning the Gospel every day. And we must be humble. Admitting some matters are out of our reach is an expression of our mortal imperfection, and a way of saying that we need God and Christ in our lives, to help us believe though we don't understand. This isn't an easy path either. In a way it is harder to admit that we may never understand, that we have to rely on the Plan of Salvation purely on faith in God's goodness, at least in the matter at hand.