Honest Questions
Moving to Austria, I took it for granted that we would find and fit into a church community just as we had in Norwich. Why wouldn’t this be a chart-topping priority for God? But church in Vienna was hard for us. For a whole range of reasons, we didn’t find that place of being deeply rooted. We became three out of five, sporadic attenders. And with our regular attendance retreating, my doubts rolled forward. The doubts and questions didn’t surprise me; I knew they were there beforehand but the power of a church community, worship and spiritual practices had helped me keep them conveniently quiet. I had tucked these problematic questions underneath the convincing belief that I could never expect to fully understand God. When I felt less swept up in church, this belief felt more like an easy way out than powerful truth. And I am reluctant to write this. Perhaps Christian readers can relate more: I’ve been a Christian since my early teenage years and, if we’re expecting steady progre