Soren Kierkegaard tells the story of a boy trying to learn arithmetic. The teacher gives him a book full of problems to solve. In the back of the book is a list of answers to the problems, but the teacher instructs the boy never to look at the answers in the back of the book. Instead he is to work out the answers for himself. As the boy does his homework. He cheats. He looks in the back of the book and gets the answers first; finding it much easier to work out the problems if he knows the answers in advance. Kierkegaard points out that while it is possible for the boy to get good grades this way, he will never really learn mathematics. As difficult as it may prove to be, the only way to become a mathematician is to struggle with the problems itself, not by using someone else’s answers, even if those answers are the right ones. – It’s obvious on life’s journey we are faced with problems, and we sometimes wonder why Jesus doesn’t just spell out the answers so that we know exactly what to do. According to Kierkegaard, God doesn’t give us the answers because He wants to force us to work out the problems for ourselves. It is only by struggling with the problems as they present themselves, day in day out, that we can develop into the kinds of mature people God wants us to be.

Source: Tony Campolo, Let Me Tell You A Story, p.8-9