Why do you think that? Grab your belief system evaluator here.

When I think about this story, I think about my beliefs in general. I wonder where they came from and why I have them. I’m a pretty introspective person by nature of my personality and my upbringing, so I consider things like this a lot. I also grew up in a time where we had space in our lives and schedules to think on such things. Have you considered recently what you believe?

Now, tell me why. Are your beliefs more sentimental than rational? Do you lean more on emotion than facts? Were you raised to believe what you believe by parents and a community that you respect and trust? Were you indoctrinated or abused? Did you study, think, meditate, and come to a rational conclusion about what you believe? Why do you believe what you believe?

Yes, where we learn our beliefs matters. It matters because it impacts how we view those beliefs, but it also matters because it can influence which beliefs we hold onto and which ones we don’t. Do yourself a favor: don’t let your perception of a place, situation, or time color what you believe. I’ve learned some incredibly valuable, good, and true things from difficult circumstances that I shouldn’t have ever had to endure. I’ve learned some unhelpful, bad, and false things from nice places and easy circumstances.

Too often, we place our identity not only in what we believe (which is actually a good thing), but also in who taught us this belief. Read that again: we place our identity not only in what we believe, but also in who taught us this belief. And that, friends, is incredibly dangerous.

Whether you have any experience with Christianity or not is irrelevant to my point. It’s the context and framework that I think is most helpful because I believe that what you think about Jesus is the most important thing about you. My point here is that, even if you learn the same stories or same sorts of things, how you learn them matters. How you learn your beliefs is going to shape how you view them, how deeply rooted they are, and whether or not you hold onto them when things get tough.

But is it really “make” believe? Aren’t children reminding us of the importance of belief? Even if their belief is in something made up like Santa Claus, that skill, learning to believe, is critical. I think we all learn to believe and imagine when we are children. So, maybe we don’t need to spend our time thinking about when we learned to believe, but, rather, when we learned to stop believing.

Belief is like this. When we really believe in something, we trust in it to guide our lives and help us make decisions. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, if we believe that peanut butter is disgusting, we might not like pad thai. Because beliefs aren’t always based on an overwhelming amount of evidence, though, they sometimes disappoint us. Like a wicker chair that has seen better days, we sometimes trust our beliefs to guide us and they collapse underneath the weight of our life. Perhaps you believed that brussel sprouts were gross only to discover they were delicious or the much worse belief that someone was honorable only to find out that they were a liar. Either way, we live what we believe and, therefore, beliefs have consequences.

So, take a few steps down the perilous path. Explore what you believe, what you see, and consider what makes sense of the world. Ask questions. Never stop asking questions. And don’t trust anyone who wants you to stop. The truth does not need a defender. It is the essence of reality and the foundation of the world itself. It’s far beyond you or me to define. Ask for it. Seek for it. Knock on every door.