Jeff Turner is one of my favourite modern Christian thinkers and writers, and I’ve said before that he’s a person whom I consider to be a modern-day C.S. Lewis. His logic, perceptiveness and clarity of thought are like a breath of fresh air in today’s climate of unlearned people making glib, trite comments. I share one of his quotes below.

To put his quote in context, let me explain that many people in the Church think (if that’s the correct word to use for it, anyway) that if reality contradicts what ‘God’s Word’ (in their eyes, the Bible) says, then it’s reality that’s wrong and the Bible is right. I know this is the case because I used to believe that too, much to my later embarrassment!*

Jeff has more thoughts along these lines which I reproduce for you below:

“Faith is not refusing to acknowledge reality, and it certainly isn’t to deny reality. The way it’s commonly spoken of, you would think faith meant to white-knuckle your way through clear-as-day evidence to contrary, or to lock on to an idea with the strength of a bear trap, and refuse to let go, even when it becomes inarguably evident that you were wrong.

“Quite to the contrary, faith is to let go. It is to release all of the beliefs and ideas we hold in our tightly clenched fists, so that something of real value might find its way into our open hand. It is letting go of the stumps and branches we are fighting to hold onto, and simply allowing the current of the river to take us where it wishes. Faith is knowing that if we let go, we will arrive at a much better place than the one we are determine to remain in”.