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Pinnacle Presbyterian Church

Echoes (of the Word)

It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
When he utters his voice,
there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightnings for the rain,
and he brings out the wind from his storehouses.
~Jeremiah 10:12-13

It’s hard to believe that only months ago the New Horizons spacecraft completed the Pluto fly by. Now, just last week, researchers claim to have discovered a ninth (or tenth, but who is counting) planet, so Pluto’s five seconds of fame came just in time. It’s interesting, though, how our curiosity is insatiable, a trait the dates back to the Garden of Eden—our adventurous spirit and thirst for answers.

Science is defined as the study of the physical and natural world through observation and experimentation. There are a million reasons why I am glad we have a scientific spirit. It brings cures for disease, high-speed travel, and, of course, Google! When we look at our faith from a scientific perspective, however, things creep into question. As humans, we use science to try and explain how things work in our world. Often we can find answers. However, sometimes we can’t find the answers so we make theories and conjectures to explain the unexplainable. We struggle to find the intersection of science and faith only to neglect their perfect interaction.

If we only use science to understand God, eventually we seem to find a dead end, but that is where faith takes over. The simple, blind leap we make when we affirm and accept Christ branches our real world with a surreal understanding. If we release our grasp of the dimensions we know in the natural, we find strength and understanding in the supernatural; in the reality that God exists from everlasting to everlasting. I have spent too much time in my life fighting with God, questioning Him, and looking for answers with intelligence and logic. When I hit the roadblocks with scientific and analytical thinking, it is typically because I have not involved faith in the process. A plunge into faith provides all the understanding I need. God gave us intellectual inspiration not to remove faith from our processes but to grow and fuel our quest for answers and the depth of our faith.

In a Bible study recently I heard something so simple, yet so profound. We hit a roadblock with a scripture verse and someone said that maybe things are the way they are because, “God is God.” I liked that phrase because it was the simplest answer I have ever heard to the quintessential question of faith. When I hear of violence or tragedy that seems to make no sense, I remind myself that, “God is God.” When I question why Jesus hasn’t invaded someone’s heart, I just tell myself to take it easy because “God is God”. It is calming and strengthening. It takes a leap of faith. But, when we can admit to ourselves that there are just going to be things beyond our control and our comprehension and that, “God is God,” I know we find the safety and comfort to last us a lifetime.