Pastor’s kid or not, nobody inherits faith. Everybody has to own their own.

REFLECTION

WHAT THIS MEANS

Proximity to faith is not the same as having any. Growing up around it gives you the vocabulary, the songs and the expectations, which can be mistaken for belief for years, particularly when everyone assumes it on your behalf. At some point the thing has to be chosen rather than absorbed, and that is true of the pastor’s kid and the newcomer alike.

Ask what you actually believe when nobody is assuming anything. Keep what holds, question what does not, and give it your own words. Inherited answers will not survive the first real test of them.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Which beliefs of yours came from home and stayed unexamined?

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