Thinking For Ourselves

Some folks are unforgettable.  Over the years of ministry there have been a lot of people whose paths have crossed mine.  There are times when I can vaguely remember the crossing, but somehow know it happened.  There are others who involved me in their struggles in such ways that they remain etched in the memory.  One such woman would come to our Sunday evening worship though she was a member of another church which she attended on Sunday morning.  She finally quit coming because her pastor told her she should not be exposing herself to Methodist doctrine.  When she told me her reason for stopping, I could only say, "Don't let other people to do your thinking."     

Of course, it is always easier said than done.  Most of us must confess to believing some things about our faith, not because we have examined a doctrine, but because someone else told us it was true.  Many of the things we grew up believing we continue to believe because we were told it was the right thing to believe.  And while some of the teaching people in our past may be trustworthy, it is still a good thing to figure out what we believe because we believe it to be true and not just because we were told it was true.    

A lot of us can remember this kind of faith struggle taking place when we left home and the church of our childhood for our first taste of life beyond the borders of such comfort and safety.  I remember those years well.  Before I got to the end of that season in my life I had thrown away much of what I had been taught to believe.  But, my real problem was not having anything to fill the spiritual vacuum I had created.  It took some years to come back to a strong sense of faith, but when I did it became more of what I looked at, thought about, and decided was true.  It is never a good idea to give someone else the power to do our thinking.