Sep. 7, 2025 - Conventional

How are things with your soul? This profound question invites us to pause and reflect on our spiritual well-being. Just as our physical health requires attention, our spiritual health demands introspection and care. As we navigate the complexities of life, our faith journey resembles a unique recipe - much like crafting the perfect chili.

Consider the stages of faith development, which mirror human development in many ways. We begin as babes in Christ, gradually maturing in our knowledge, service, and love of God. This growth trajectory is not unlike the path from childhood to adulthood, with each stage presenting its own challenges and opportunities for spiritual expansion.

One particularly tumultuous stage is what we might call the "synthetic" or "conventional" stage of faith. This phase often coincides with adolescence, typically from ages 12 to 16, though it can extend into young adulthood. During this time, individuals begin to question and synthesize their beliefs, much like teenagers who suddenly view their parents as "stupid" and start forging their own identities.

In today's world, teenagers face unprecedented challenges. They navigate a sea of information at their fingertips, grappling with discerning truth from falsehood. They confront social and political upheavals, school safety concerns, and the relentless influence of social media - all while experiencing the usual hormonal and physical changes of adolescence. It's a lot to handle, and perhaps we should extend more grace and understanding to the youth of today.

This synthetic stage of faith is akin to making chili. You start with a base - the foundation of beliefs instilled by parents, Sunday school teachers, and early spiritual influences. But then you begin adding new ingredients, trying different flavors, and adjusting the recipe to your own taste. You might incorporate insights from various religious traditions, explore new forms of worship, or wrestle with challenging theological concepts.

Take, for example, the practice of making the sign of the cross. This simple gesture carries deep symbolism: the two fingers representing Jesus as fully God and fully human, the three fingers symbolizing the Trinity. The direction of the motion - left to right or right to left - carries meaning about moving from darkness to light, from sin to righteousness. By exploring such practices and their significance, we enrich our faith "recipe" and deepen our spiritual understanding.

The Greek philosopher Socrates famously said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." We might adapt this to say, "The unexamined faith is not worth believing." God doesn't want us to be satisfied with a hand-me-down faith. He invites us to wrestle with difficult questions, to doubt, to explore, and ultimately to develop a personal, living faith that can withstand life's storms.

This process of examination and growth is beautifully illustrated in the story of Abraham and Sarah. When God renewed His covenant with Abraham, promising him a son through Sarah despite their advanced age, Abraham laughed to himself. The idea seemed absurd - how could a 100-year-old man father a child with his 90-year-old wife? Yet God insisted, even instructing them to name the child Isaac, which means "he laughs" in Hebrew.

Abraham's laughter reveals the tension between faith and reality, between trusting God and grappling with the seemingly impossible. It's a tension we all face as we mature in our faith. We make plans, life happens, and sometimes it feels like God is laughing at the absurdity of it all. But it's precisely in these moments of tension that our faith has the opportunity to deepen and grow.

In this pivotal moment, God changed Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai's to Sarah. In ancient times, a name change signified a fundamental shift in identity and essence. As Abraham and Sarah wrestled with balancing faith, reality, and the impossible promises of God, they were transformed at their very core.

This transformation is available to each of us as we navigate our own faith journey. As we mix the ingredients of our spiritual "chili" - balancing tradition with new insights, wrestling with doubt, and embracing the mysteries of faith - we too can experience a profound change in our spiritual identity.

So, how is your faith "chili" today? What theological thoughts, practices, or beliefs are you wrestling with? What aspects of your inherited faith do you need to shed, and what new insights are you ready to incorporate? How are you growing and changing as you personalize your faith?

Remember, this journey isn't about abandoning everything we've been taught. It's about building upon that foundation, asking hard questions, and allowing our faith to mature and deepen. It's about moving from a faith that belongs to our parents or our community to a faith that is genuinely our own.

As we navigate this process, we can take comfort in knowing that even great figures of faith, like Abraham, had moments of doubt and laughter in the face of God's seemingly impossible promises. Yet through it all, God remained faithful, bringing about the fulfillment of His word in ways that defied human understanding.

In our own lives, we may face situations that seem equally impossible. We might laugh at the audacity of God's promises or the dreams He's placed in our hearts. But like Abraham, we're invited to press into that tension, to allow our faith to be stretched and strengthened as we learn to trust in a God who specializes in the impossible.

So today, as you ponder the state of your soul, consider the recipe of your faith. Are you stuck with the same old ingredients, or are you willing to try something new? Are you allowing God to change your name - to transform the very essence of who you are? Are you willing to laugh with God at the beautiful absurdity of His plans for your life?

May we all have the courage to examine our faith, to ask the hard questions, and to embrace the transformative power of a living, growing relationship with God. As we do, we may find that our spiritual "chili" becomes richer, more flavorful, and more satisfying than we ever imagined possible.