By Joelle Friesen, a senior molecular biology/biochemistry major from Normal, Illinois
Scripture: Philippians 1:3-11 (NRSV)
Some days, life feels like a collection of questions with each of us seeking answers. At this point in life, my questions often include schooling, future career plans and more. But recently my musings have been centered more broadly on faith. What does it mean to be church? Why do people not live what they preach? How do I live my beliefs without imposing on others? How can convictions be held both strongly and gently?
Questions bring us together and tear us apart. They bind us to restlessness and free us from blind acceptance. Questions and answers must be held in tension, and sometimes I feel I am walking a balance beam between them. I attended Mennonite World Conference this past summer, and was struck by one speaker describing such dichotomies as necessary, likening them to the two pedals of a bicycle. Both doubt and conviction, and certainty and uncertainty, are imperative if you want to go anywhere. Discernment and insight are required, and I believe questions must be valued as much as answers.
But through my questioning, there is one answer I remain sure of. I am confident of this: a God of love cradles us all, and through an overflow of love – love of self, neighbor and stranger – we find knowledge and insight. Through love, questions can be appreciated and meaningful answers can be found. My hope is that this advent season each of us can find freedom through holding both questions and answers in love.
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart…
Try to love the questions themselves…
Do not now seek the answers,
which cannot be given
because you would not be able
to live them.
And the point is,
to live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then
gradually,
without noticing it,
Live along some distant day into the answers.
– Rainer Maria Rilke, from Letters to a Young Poet
Scripture: Philippians 1:3-11 (NRSV)
I thank my God every time I remember you, 4constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. 6I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.
7It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.
9And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight 10to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, 11having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.