DAY 198

INTELLECTUAL INTEGRITY

Psalm 16 & 17 and Acts 20:1-16

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge, Psalm 16:1. Clearly a prayer we can all cry out from time to time. I have been thinking about the “in you I take refuge” part. I have been thinking specifically about where I take refuge when I am sharing the Gospel in a less and less tolerant world.

My thoughts go to this question because of all the action we are reading about in Acts of the Apostles. Paul is obsessed with sharing the Gospel and he uses a technique that I try to hold to. I don’t know what Paul calls it, but I call “intellectual integrity.”

When people come up and ask me a question about God I love to respond with a question that goes something like, “Well tell me about how you understand God, and why you understand God that way?” After a bit the question comes round my way and I will always share my views, but usually offer an observation or question. I observe that in our world today where “tolerance” is an often espoused virtue, I find that people are uncomfortable with disagreement – and I usually ask the person if it will be OK if we disagree. Next I tell them that my basis for my understanding of God, as best as I can understand someone as vast and magnificent as God, is found in the Bible and Person of Jesus Christ.

I find in our world today we are losing the ability to have conversations about God. We (or maybe I) fear being labeled as a bigot, or worse. People will often take one thing said and then pigeon-hole another person with a rather derogatory label.

Imagine Paul going into a synagogue and debating for days, even weeks. Yes at some point they would ask him to leave, get very upset, and even turn ugly. Yet I wonder if they had intellectual integrity? I think they may have.

What I mean by intellectual integrity is that we try and be honest with ourselves. Where is it we are making assumptions. Where is it we know we are making a step of faith. Where is it we are struggling with our own issues. Finally, how is it we read the Bible. For me, I cannot put words into Jesus' mouth that never came out, and I cannot take words out of his mouth that he has spoken. Further, the Bible cannot mean something today it did not mean when it was first written. I need to deal with the full corpus of the Bible – the good, the hard, and the confusing. I need to try hard to present Jesus as the Son of God come to earth to reconcile the world to the Father, and to make that presentation with love and charity…but (and it is a big one) I need to not shrink away.

Consider this idea of asking a question or two before you start, consider making an observation about how people are uncomfortable disagreeing asking permission to disagree, and then begin.

The Christian value is not tolerance to the point where your tolerance silences you…the Christian value is hospitality. Hospitality is a spiritual gift. Having a civil conversation, discussing, listening, sharing ideas and thoughts about God is to practice Christian hospitality…and remember you can always find refuge in God.