Faith and Reason

**This poem is inspired out of the contradictions that have run through my life both interally and those lived out in the relationships I've had with friends and teachers. It is also inspired by a couple of influential people and pastors. Reading the book Love Wins by Rob Bell has inspired me to let go of some of the arguments I carry on in my head between factions of myself and my community. Yvette Flunder has given me language to both embrace the complicated text we call Scripture and use it appropriately in today's world. Thanks to them and my church family here and far that help me wrestle, wonder, and still belong.

Faith and Reason
by Teri VanLieshout
7/22/11

Faith and Reason
    two passions
  running forever deep
      in this immutable soul.

God,
  I see you
    in dendrites and DNA
  in evolution
       and the geologist's history.

Reason,
   I see you
  as a gift from Him
     not in contrast to
  but because of.

Faith,
   you are my companion
 in the Secular
    and the Sublime.
  I need you to stand
       on the shoulders of giants
   and in the arms of the Son.

Doubt,
   I know you too:
  "Maybe this is a lie
      I tell myself to feel better."
  But yet I know
    life IS better
        in connection with Him
  lived both ways, I’ve felt it in my heart.

I am
   not enough of a scientist
      for my science friends,
   not enough of a Zealot
      for my Christian friends
 so I am a Holy Misfit
    in this world
       of Either-Or.

I am
  a Both-And girl
 in an Either-Or world
     reaching toward the Infinite
  trusting in reason and thought
     faith and experience
 a Bible in each breath
     of the Natural World.

I trust
   You ARE
  as I am...  HERE
   and we are
      together.

I trust
  LOVE WINS!
 and life evolves
   both literally and figuratively.

I trust You
   in knowing You,
  I don't have to check
     my brain at the door.
  You gave me this brain,
      so I use it.

I don't believe
   You created
 throw-away-life
     it was all meant
   to BE
  and to be
     good.

Unscientists
   break the world
      into the sum of its parts.
Others
     break faith
    into the sum of ONE book
       interpreted by ONE person,
   the Bible-Answer-Man.

Yet I am a Both-And girl
   in an Either-Or world
  and I trust
     it's OK
  this Faith and Reason

I trust
   and doubt
 my belief in
    EVERYTHING
      42
  7,3, or 5
 mystic numbers
      and natural expression
  that go beyond
       finite understanding.

Faith and Reason
   you are my friends
  and I don't know why
     this world insists
  that you can't be friends
      with each other.

To know You
     to understand this world
        and the next
  I lean on  you both
   Faith and Reason

God of science
   science of God
 Reason is incomplete without awe
    as is blind faith
  So I trust
      in You.

God of Love
   Giver of Life
  The Grand Architect
And Cosmic Bowler,

Humans will know
   with certainty
      while You laugh
   in the margins.

Faith
   Scripture
  Experience
       Tradition
  and Reason

You are my companions
  my lens
    in this life
as I stretch toward the next.