You Don't Have to Deconstruct

I spend a lot of time talking about how people can rethink and rebuild their faith. For some people, words like "deconstruction" are a constant source of confusion. I've offered explanations to help it make sense, such as the fact that nobody orders the moldy tomato.

But maybe we need more terms to use when the word "deconstruction" feels problematic or too loaded. Perhaps an expansion of our vocabulary will allow greater imagination in making space for this journey. In that vein, here are three other ways to think about navigating faith.

Image #1: Gold Washing

In this metaphor, we become the person panning for gold by the river. The idea is that there is something valuable and we're close to it, but we'll have to sift through a lot of other stuff to find it. The pan doesn't discriminate at first. Everything goes in together: the sediment, the rocks, the debris, and somewhere in there, the gold. The work is in the sifting.

This image has felt appropriate to me, as I've often had an adrenaline rush when I discover a new idea about God that I didn't know existed. There's something that happens when a concept you've held loosely suddenly materializes, or when a passage you've read a hundred times means something entirely different than it did before. That's the moment something in the pan catches the light.

What's worth noting about gold panning is that it requires you to let things go. Most of what enters the pan has to wash back out. Rather than considering it a failure, we acknowledge that this is the method. The person who refuses to release the sediment never finds what they came for. And the person who dumps the pan entirely because the process feels tedious loses both the debris and the gold.

While the journey of panning might take a while, and you might need to travel to different spots on the river before you find anything, the reward of holding the gold in your hand validates the efforts. Some stretches of river yield nothing. So you move and try again. This is what it means to "test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Image #2: Unpacking

How long does it take you to unpack from a trip? I tend to either do it immediately or my bag sits next to my bed for weeks. Unpacking your suitcase doesn't mean you don't value what's in it. It doesn't mean you won't need it again. It just means that you don't currently need it. This is often a great way to rediscover what's in the bag that you forgot about. And better to do this early, before you have the epiphany standing in front of the TSA agent holding that new bottle of hot sauce you picked up on your trip.

When it comes to what we believe, most people have accumulated a bunch of stuff they probably forgot was there. It's like discovering you packed a snow jacket for your summer trip to the beach. Occasionally unpacking our luggage offers a chance to make sure we aren't carrying around things that we no longer need. And the longer you've believed something the more this process is needed.

The Apostle Paul uses this way of thinking to describe the Law: "The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian" (Galatians 3:24-25). Leave it at home.

Image #3: Real or Not Real

In The Hunger Games story, the character of Peeta gets to a point where he isn't sure of his reality anymore. He navigates this by asking a simple question to those he trusts: "real or not real?" He might point out something he thinks is true, then follow up with this question.

It's actually a helpful question to ask of people we trust. We might explain how we think something works and then invite their opinion to see if it makes sense to them, just as it does to us. I'm often amazed at the things people assume I agree with (like the time someone told me how much I'd love a certain company because it was all the things I love: "Guns, God, and coffee... in that order.")

This is why John tells us, "Do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them" (1 John 4:1). Real or not real? As we see in the Scriptures and today, many things that claim the label of Christian should be tested before we embrace them.

So embrace whatever analogy is helpful and try it out. At the end of the day, the image you use for the journey matters less than your willingness to keep moving forward. 

Katniss eventually gets there too.

What I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.

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