Dear sisters and brothers,

A story is told of a little boy whose father taught mechanical engineering at a prestigious university. One day, the boy came in through the back door and asked his mother, “What time is it?”

His mother wasn’t wearing a watch, and she was busy with something else. So she replied, “Your father is in the living room. Go and ask him.”

The little boy shrugged his shoulders and said, “Never mind. I don’t want to know how to make a watch; I just want to know what time it is!”

When it comes to religion and our understanding of the Christian faith, I suspect we sometimes feel the same way. We want to know God, to understand what it means to follow Jesus, and to live our faith meaningfully. Yet, we can easily become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information available to us.

Consider the Bible. It contains seventy two books, many of them long, complex, and rich in meaning. There are commentaries explaining the nuances of every verse, along with countless books exploring almost every conceivable biblical topic. Beyond that, we have books on Church doctrine, Christian ethics, the history of Christianity, worship, mission, education, stewardship, and prayer. Christian writers are always ready to tell us how to improve our prayer life, our relationships, our golf score, and even our investment portfolio!