When I was a young Christian, in my early teenaged years I started noticing something that concerned me.  Many Christians didn't like me to ask them questions.  God gave me an inquisitive mind, so, for example, when I started hearing about the theory of evolution in biology class, I wanted to know why I had never heard about it in church.  Why hadn't someone told me that God had used a "big bang" and evolution to bring things into being?   After all, if the Apostle Paul wrote:  ²Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 NLT (Emphasis added), then why wasn't anyone in church interested in changing the way I thought?

I'll never forget a moment in 9th grade biology class when, Mr. Graham (Duane not Billy!) asked me, "Do you believe the universe originated the way we have been learning?"  (We had been learning the theory of evolution, complete with the Big Bang.)  I didn't want to seem stupid, and no one had ever offered a reasonable alternative (other than the Bible, of course, which seemed a bit simple), so I said, "Yes."  Then he asked me, "Do you believe in God?"  Without hesitation, I responded, "Yes, I do."  He said, "See.  You can believe in science and in God."  That was the beginning of me putting Romans 12:2 into practice.  I felt as if I had just been hoodwinked into agreeing with the theory of evolution through peer pressure, and lack of alternative options, AND I knew the theory of evolution conflicted with what I had always believed about God and creation. 

It wasn't until many years later when I started reading books such as The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel, that I realized the world has many extremely intelligent thinkers who believe God created everything, without using evolution, and that science can NEVER answer the question of origins, or HOW the universe came into existence.  Throughout my life, I have returned to Romans 12:2 again and again, because Paul exhorts us to let God transform us by CHANGING THE WAY WE THINK, or by THE RENEWING OF OUR MINDS.  Do you realize how awesome that is?  It means we are never to just accept ANYTHING at face value.  We are to think, reflect, ponder, puzzle and pray through matters until we gain clarity and confidence.  You may remember it was the Jews in Berea who Luke called noble, because they EXAMINED what the Apostle Paul taught about Jesus against the Scriptures and discerned it was true.

If you are an intelligent person, or a scientifically oriented person, or you love to think, you may have felt frustrated with the Christian faith, because you think it means checking your brains at the door and "just believing."  God forbid!  Yes, we must take many matters on faith, meaning we don't  have all the facts in a way that would allow us to prove the truth of a particular matter in a laboratory setting.  After all, by definition faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.  But faith is an "informed trust, not a nice gullibility", as Dr. David Willis used to remind us at Princeton.  The basic tenets of our faith are simple, but they need not be received without evidence, and they do stand the test of thoughtful reflection.  I feel sorry for scientists who pretend they live their lives without faith, or for believers who pretend they (or worse who actually) live their lives without the necessity of thinking!  After all, if God exists and is infinitely wise, and we are created in His image and likeness, then He must certainly be pleased when we join faith with reason as we live out our faith.  What are you doing habitually to let God change the way you think? 

I would love to have the opportunity to go back to 9th grade biology for a moment, and express my belief in and reasons for understanding that an intelligent designer lies behind the creation of the universe and the He is One in the same with the God I acknowledged way back then!  I would love to be able to go back and offer all the reasons for doubting the theory of evolution based on the facts and science I know now.  But if I knew everything then that I know now, I wouldn't have needed 9th grade!

Let's pray: Heavenly Father, Thank You for making us like You in our ability to reason.  Thank You even more for being willing to change the way we think, so we may live more and more as You created us to live.  Fill us with Your Holy Spirit that we may glorify You in all we are and do. This we pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.