were robbed<\/del>\u00a0lost the 1991 World Series because I was so distraught.<\/p>\nBut one thing I don\u2019t love so much about baseball are the so-called unwritten rules.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re annoying. And all over the place. And usually make absolutely no sense whatsoever.<\/p>\n
I get the unwritten rule that says you shouldn\u2019t bunt late in the game just to try and break up a no-hitter. That\u2019s pretty cheap. At least during the regular season.<\/p>\n
But don\u2019t\u00a0steal third base with two outs? And don\u2019t step on the pitcher\u2019s mound? And don\u2019t admire your own home run?<\/em><\/p>\nThat stuff is just dumb.<\/p>\n
Of course, baseball isn\u2019t the only institution with unwritten rules.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve got plenty of unwritten rules in the church too.<\/p>\n
Like,\u00a0if someone sits in the same place every Sunday morning, then that\u2019s their reserved seat. Don\u2019t sit there. Ever.<\/em><\/p>\nThe correct order of worship music goes like this: super upbeat song, upbeat song, slightly less upbeat song, and then a slow song to set the mood, I mean \u201cusher in the Spirit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nAnd if the pastor says something you don\u2019t like during their sermon, you\u2019re obligated as a good Christian soldier to send them a passive aggressive email correcting their error first thing Monday morning.<\/em><\/p>\nBut my least favorite unwritten church rule of all time?<\/p>\n
Never say, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nThis rule applies everywhere from the pulpit to the internet and anywhere in between.<\/p>\n
I mean, think about it for a second: When\u2019s the last time you heard a pastor or Christian celebrity or religious talking head simply say, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d?<\/p>\n
It almost never happens.<\/p>\n
We expect our pastors to use their sermons as a 30\u00a0minute answer session for our weekly questions about the Bible, life, and those infamous, but terribly named \u201chot topics.\u201d Formal organizations\u00a0exist\u00a0to provide answers in Genesis<\/del> to every theological answer under the sun \u2013 while often denouncing anyone with the \u201cwrong\u201d answers. And leave it to social media\u00a0to provide definitive answers to every question and controversy in the world whether you asked for those answers of not.<\/p>\nIn the midst of this tornado of truth, any acknowledgement of \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d is treated as weakness, ignorance, or laziness. It\u2019s often\u00a0assumed that if someone doesn\u2019t know the answer to a difficult question, it\u2019s simply because they didn\u2019t do the necessary\u00a0research or take the requisite\u00a0time to think about the situation at hand.<\/p>\n
Often, however, the opposite is true.<\/p>\n
To be fair,\u00a0our insatiable need for answers really shouldn\u2019t come as much of a surprise. After all, with our smartphones, we carry the totality of human knowledge around in our pockets and so we have become conditioned to provide or at least have access to answers for every question imaginable.<\/p>\n
But there are echoes of Eden in our need for answers to everything.<\/p>\n
Like Adam and Eve, we snatch at the tree of knowledge because ultimately we want to be like God.<\/p>\n
We want to be in total control and lack for nothing.<\/em><\/p>\nThat\u2019s what our quixotic quest for answers is really all about. For some of us, answers simply serve as a warm blank we mistakingly think will shield us from the cold and often confusing complexity of real life. But for many more of us, answers are the things that give\u00a0us power and with that power comes the ability to control and manipulate the world around us and, more importantly, the people within it.<\/p>\n
And so we gleefully delude ourselves into thinking we\u2019ve got it all figured out, providing reasons for everything and Bible verses to back it up.<\/p>\n
But in doing so we expose our own misunderstanding, not only of faith, but what\u00a0the Bible is and how it functions. We believe and often need it to be an answer book. But it\u2019s not. It does, of course, offer some answers for how to respond in some\u00a0situations, but taken as a whole the Bible seems to raise far more questions than it does provide answers.<\/p>\n
Am I my brother\u2019s keeper?<\/em><\/p>\nWho do you say that I am?<\/em><\/p>\nMy God, my God, why have you forsaken me?<\/em><\/p>\nThe Bible is absolutely there to guide us and we should unquestionably\u00a0make an effort to know and understand what we can, but we need to remember that the same Paul who said we need to be ready in season and out, also acknowledged that we see but through a mirror dimly.<\/p>\n
In other words, we don\u2019t<\/em> and can\u2019t<\/em> have it all figured out.<\/p>\nWhich is why \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d is such an important component of faith.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t necessarily mean we\u2019re\u00a0not \u201cready in season and out\u201d or that we\u00a0haven\u2019t given any thought to the matter at hand. The opposite should be true. It\u2019s\u00a0ok to say \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d when we haven\u2019t actually given it much thought or don\u2019t have the proper training, but the best \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d comes about through wrestling long, hard, and honestly over difficult matters.<\/p>\n
Now, don\u2019t hear me wrong. There is\u00a0certainly\u00a0space and even a need for some answers, but when we feel obligated to always offer answers to everything in life, the inevitable result is unnecessary pain.<\/p>\n
When life gets messy and hearts break, one of\u00a0the worst things we can offer are answers or reasons why God wanted or allowed a\u00a0tragedy to happen.<\/p>\n
What we need to do instead is learn to make space for sacred silence, the kind of silence\u00a0that acknowledges\u00a0the gravity of the situation, honors the pain of those who suffer, and recognizes that\u00a0some questions simply don\u2019t have answers, or at least not easy ones that can be proof-texted with cherry picked Bible verses.<\/p>\n
Making space for sacred silence\u00a0requires a level of humility that\u2019s largely missing in the church today, but it\u2019s humility we can and must rediscover if we\u2019re to remain relevant in the world and not be dismissed as arrogant know-it-alls who only preach, never listen.<\/p>\n
Only correct, never embrace.<\/p>\n
Only control, never serve.<\/p>\n
Only denounce, never love.<\/p>\n
Saying \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d isn\u2019t about laziness or weakness or stupidity or not being prepared.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about taking posture of humility when the moment calls for such.<\/p>\n
And those moments come about far more often than most of us are\u00a0willing to admit.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(H\/T Rebecca Barray, Flickr) I\u2019m a huge baseball fan. Have been for as long as I can remember. I\u2019m the guy that spends $130 a year to stream\u00a0his favorite team\u2019s games online \u2013 and watches every single one of them. I\u2019m the guy that\u00a0drives 6 hours each way on a weeknight for a do-or-die playoff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":12891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
The 3 Words Christians Aren't Allowed To Say<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(H\/T Rebecca Barray, Flickr) I'm a huge baseball fan. Have been for as long as I can remember. I'm the guy that spends $130 a year to stream\u00a0his favorite\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 3 Words Christians Aren't Allowed To Say\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(H\/T Rebecca Barray, Flickr) I'm a huge baseball fan. Have been for as long as I can remember. I'm the guy that spends $130 a year to stream\u00a0his favorite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-24T15:36:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/941\/2014\/09\/tape-over-mouth.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Zack Hunt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Zack Hunt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/\",\"name\":\"The 3 Words Christians Aren't Allowed To Say\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-24T15:36:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-24T15:36:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226\"},\"description\":\"(H\/T Rebecca Barray, Flickr) I'm a huge baseball fan. Have been for as long as I can remember. I'm the guy that spends $130 a year to stream\u00a0his favorite\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The 3 Words Christians Aren’t Allowed To Say\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/\",\"name\":\"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt\",\"description\":\"Zack writes about the intersection of faith and politics\u2026and sometimes BBQ.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226\",\"name\":\"Zack Hunt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Zack Hunt\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/author\/zhunt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The 3 Words Christians Aren't Allowed To Say","description":"(H\/T Rebecca Barray, Flickr) I'm a huge baseball fan. Have been for as long as I can remember. I'm the guy that spends $130 a year to stream\u00a0his favorite","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The 3 Words Christians Aren't Allowed To Say","og_description":"(H\/T Rebecca Barray, Flickr) I'm a huge baseball fan. Have been for as long as I can remember. I'm the guy that spends $130 a year to stream\u00a0his favorite","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/","og_site_name":"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt","article_published_time":"2014-09-24T15:36:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/941\/2014\/09\/tape-over-mouth.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Zack Hunt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Zack Hunt","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/","name":"The 3 Words Christians Aren't Allowed To Say","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-09-24T15:36:17+00:00","dateModified":"2014-09-24T15:36:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226"},"description":"(H\/T Rebecca Barray, Flickr) I'm a huge baseball fan. Have been for as long as I can remember. I'm the guy that spends $130 a year to stream\u00a0his favorite","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/09\/3-words-christians-arent-allowed-say\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The 3 Words Christians Aren’t Allowed To Say"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/","name":"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt","description":"Zack writes about the intersection of faith and politics\u2026and sometimes BBQ.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226","name":"Zack Hunt","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Zack Hunt"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/author\/zhunt\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"tape](\"https:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/tape-over-mouth-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n