Solving Problems vs Solving Mysteries

About 8 years back, something happened. I got too exposed to a broader worldview and God-view and I embarked on a spiritual transformation process that has only continued. I began asking questions that had long been dormant inside me. I started admitting doubts about my evangelical faith tradition that I had formerly been too afraid to admit. If it all had to summed up in a word it would be this: Mystery. What was once certain wasn’t anymore. Instead of approaching my faith journey with certainty and knowing, I approached it with awe and wonder. Instead of arrogant surety, I want to walk with humble curiosity of the MORE that is to be known of the Divine. If NASA cannot even seem to scratch the surface on that which is physical, how in the name of Ezra are we supposed to have cracked the code on the one who put it all in place?!

And about that…

Mysteries are to be sat with in all their tension. They dumfound us. They “mystify” us. They defy logic. They are beyond our ability to grasp and know. That is what makes them mysteries. They create a very real and palpable tension that keep us relating with genuine curiosity and seeking. Once a mystery is solved, it ceases being a mystery any longer. It concludes the journey. The work is over. It no longer attracts and motivates us.

Problems are meant to be solved. Not mysteries. If God is a problem for you, go ahead and try to solve God. Otherwise, sit with the mystery and let it do its work in you and on you and around you and through you. Our human need for security, stability and certainty can steal from us the great gift of journey and mystery if we let it. And for me, that would be a problem worth solving.