There have always been people who leave the church; some gradually fade away, some like to announce it to everyone they know and some are looking to take as many people with them as they can. This has always been the case. But because of social media and the internet, this seems so much bigger and more worrisome than in the past.

Whether it’s because of Gay Marriage/parenting, the weirdness in the early church or because of various commandments and doctrine, people are opting to leave. As people leave, there is something that is becoming clearer to me: God asks us to do strange things. And he asks us to do things that make us uncomfortable. He asks us to do things and believe things that try our faith.

We do not like this.

We live a rational, well-ordered existence, especially those of us who live in the First World where we expect everything to be just so. We shop at stores where we count on size 8 shoes being size 8 shoes. We eat at chain restaurants where we know exactly how the food will taste whether it’s being ordered in Miami or Seattle. There is comfort knowing that the dollar spot at Target will always be next to the front door. We claim to like quirky, but nowadays that means nothing more than buying a lamp from Goodwill rather than brand new. This whole Western culture exists to make our every activity easy and without incident. Face it, we don’t like weirdness in our lives.

But Heavenly Father has always demanded a strange way. He doesn’t do things how we imagine they should be done. He doesn’t delight in the easy comfort of human existence. Imagine how people have reacted to what he’s asked over the centuries: paint the outside of the front door with blood so our kids don’t die? Are you serious? We’re being bitten by poisonous snakes but hey, just look at this fake metal snake on a stick and we’ll be healed? Say what? Wash my eyes with mud and my blindness will disappear? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Joseph Smith is translating the brass plates how? Make a handcart and walk to where? Wear a whole other set of clothes underneath what I already wear?

This stuff the Lord asks us to do and believe is craziness! It makes zero sense to our finite little pea-brains that take pleasure in routine and easiness. We like to believe in things that make sense. But this stuff, these weird and crazy doctrines that sometimes create more questions than they answer require one thing: faith. Let me restate that for you. FAITH.

That’s what this is all about: do you trust the Lord? It’s easy to believe in things that make sense and seem rational to our 21st century selves. But what will we do when things don’t make sense? Will we search and ponder and prayerfully examine these things that require our minds to go places that stretch us and challenge us?

Sure the Lord could have just cured the Israelites of snakebites. He knew which Jews were faithful and could have told the destroying angel which houses to pass on by. He could have translated the golden plates himself and had Joseph Smith find a nicely bound, preprinted Book of Mormon in the Hill Cumorah. But he didn’t do any of these things. Our Father in Heaven rarely picks the pleasant, tidy option.

When you are looking at the church and scratching your head are you going to end up saying, “sorry, Lord, I don’t like the way you’re doing things.” I for one will not quit believing just because God’s way of doing things is simply too odd. So what if Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon with a stone in a hat. He could have translated it with en eye of newt over a bubbling cauldron for all I care. Because my testimony of the Book of Mormon is not based on what I think is acceptable and believable. The whole idea behind the Book of Mormon seems kind of cuckoo to begin with. But I have prayed about it and have a bedrock testimony that this book is true! I believe it! And I’m not about to tell the Lord that the way he does something is not the way I think it should be done so sorry, Lord, you’re too weird for me.

The Lord has always picked the stranger path. He picks things and ways that are difficult for us to believe on purpose. He wants strong followers that will look to Him and say, “I know this makes me uncomfortable but I trust you and I’m going go with it anyway.” He doesn’t want us to understand and then believe; he wants us to believe and then He will help us understand.

This world needs strong people. It needs people who will cling tirelessly to God’s word. Satan is raging and storming and it will only get worse. Does the church need a bunch of wishy-washy semi-believers? No. It needs people whose faith in God cuts through the fog of ranting voices.

Sometimes we will die not understanding issues that give us pause. Can you accept that? Can you accept that you really will figure everything out eventually? We’ve got eternity for that. One day we will know exactly why Heavenly Father did what He did. But in the meantime we can tell Father in Heaven that we’re stronger than our doubt. We will walk into that misty unknown shouting, “I believe!”. The man in the book of Mark who said to Jesus, ‘I believe; help thou mine unbelief” had it right on the money.

Believe. Have faith. My ways are not your ways.

Is our smooth, scientific lifestyle shoving the Lord’s way out of the window? Will we trade faith and hope and trust in the strange order of the Lord for a mess of easy, smooth pottage that makes sense in the here and now?

Never has the answer to that question been more essential.