There is a phrase in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians that I have returned to more times than I can count: we know in part. Not we know nothing — Paul is not an agnostic. Not we know everything — Paul is not a fool. We know in part. Partially. Genuinely, but incompletely.
I find that the people who have the hardest time with questions of faith are often the ones who believe that certainty and faith are the same thing — that you either know everything or you know nothing worth standing on. Paul offers a different picture. The glass is real. The glass is dark. Both things are true at once.
I have built my ministry on this. Not on having all the answers. Not on performing a confidence I do not possess. But on what I do know, held plainly, and what I do not know, held honestly. Christ is real. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He is patient with a man who still sees through a glass darkly.
That is enough to move forward in faith.
(1 Corinthians 13:9-12)
