Have you ever written a credo or a creed? When I was in Divinity School, we had three evaluations, one at the end of each of the three years that we were meant to be in school (it took me 7 years but that’s a story for another day). Each year, we were asked to examine our beliefs in whatever way we wanted. This was not a test to discover whether we could repeat back to our professors whatever they had taught that year. In fact, I question whether we would have been rewarded with a passing grade had we simply repeated some list of quotes from John Wesley or Jonathan Edwards or Augustine; or if we had listed a set of Bible Verses that we called true and above interpretation or examination. Rather, the purpose of the exercise was to have the students really wrestle with what we were hearing and reading in our studies, and, perhaps more importantly, how those things we were learning shaped our faith.
Most of us felt shaken up and unsure of anything after that first year of theological training. After all, presumably, we were there because we had read the Bible or had had years of Sunday school, or at the very least had spent more than the average number of hours with our bottoms in church pews. We knew what we knew, and we were shocked to learn that so much of what we knew wasn’t as simple as we thought it was. That simple exercise was a great way to check in and spend time thinking about what we believed, how our faith had changed, and what had remained the same.
The point is, that as people of faith, we are always meant to be growing and changing and learning and listening for the call of the Holy Spirit to reveal what you may have missed before or what word God has for you in your current season. If you were to write a credo, a list of things that you believe, how might it be different from what you wrote last month or last year, or ten years ago? What truths would be unchanged for you and what would you have learned that transformed the way you walk or think or move as the child of God? I invite you to give it a try. Take a few minutes to think about what makes up the foundation of your faith. Put it away somewhere and come back to it every once in a while. I pray that you will find comfort in what remains immutable in your heart and joy in every new revelation.
With love,
Rev Brae
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