It's getting easy

I'm traveling again. Right now I'm in Edmonton, AB and tomorrow I'm leaving for Minneapolis, MN. Zone meetings are a real kick in the head, I'll tell you.

The past few days have been interesting. I woke up the other day realizing that there is no such thing as knowing something. Everyone who says they "know" something is saying that they have a belief backed by experience, or reason, or history or whatever. For example, if someone says "I know that God exists," they are saying that from what they believe, with whatever information or experience they have had, that God exists. This could be through an emotional experience, a feeling, the logical connection of events, an illogical happening like a miracle, whatever. But to say for certain that God exists and try to define that is impossible.

I realize this sounds odd, but on the flip side, one cannot make any statements about knowledge without using faith. I say that I know the moon exists, but I am putting faith in scientists, the media, my ability to perceive and interpret knowledge, etc. I cannot say that I know the moon exists as an absolute truth because it is essentially unproveable as a stand-alone truth. It must be accompanied by other statements of faith. And that's just the moon, not even trying to prove a concept like love, or faith, or justice, or freedom.

It's so frustrating to have a thought like this and feel like I'm beginning to understand it a little better even though we talked about this concept in one of my classes. Lesslie Newbegin touches on this in one of his books and even though I read the book and understood it I guess I didn't internalize it. Is that the task of a reader to believe?

I like the Dutch. I've felt really at home in Abbotsford and here, and I'm beginning to wonder if I need to move to a Dutch community somewhere. They're good folk.

Bye for now.