Carefully and Prayerfully

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything new. The main reason for this is that I have been taking an online class called Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Classroom. Most of my reading and writing has been dedicated to that class these past three weeks.

As the class concludes, I find myself reflecting on something I read in an article that I used for one of the paper’s I was assigned to write. The article defined critical thinking as “the ability to analyze and evaluate information.” The article claimed that, among other things, the skills related to critical thinking could aid in dealing with spiritual questions. That statement bothered me at first because I thought faith was much more appropriate for dealing with spiritual questions than critical thinking.

But Christian faith is not blind faith. God has blessed us with the Bible so that we may be informed about who Jesus is. And He continued by questioning them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered and said to Him, "You are the Christ." (Mark 8:29) We do not accept Christ simply for who others say He is. We accept Him because, like the disciples, we have experienced who He is. We have read the accounts of His life, death and resurrection. We persist in communication with Him through prayer. We meditate upon His word. We are extremely well-informed about who our Savior is. I think that is part of the reason why many Christians read through the Bible on a 365-day reading schedule, year after year. There’s just too much information to “analyze and evaluate” in just a few sittings or a few sermons or a few Bible studies.

I suspect many people think that critical thinking and faith are mutually exclusive. That’s why the article’s statement bothered me so much at first. I thought the author might be trying to say that digging into spiritual questions deeply enough would reveal that they are merely the failure to consider things logically and realistically. But perhaps it was me who was being short-sighted. Digging deeper and deeper into God’s Word, exposing it to analysis and evaluation, only reveals more and more truth. God has blessed us with much information about our Savior and the ability to carefully and prayerfully consider all of it. The more carefully we consider it the closer we feel to Him and I think that is His purpose.