The Iceman Cometh

A couple weeks ago I found myself sitting around a fire pit in North Minneapolis talking about God. I actually do this quite often, but this time was unique because there were only four of us in the discussion, where there are usually many more. We were discussiong the organized church, and our varying levels of frustration with it. We were at the same time talking about Absolute Truth, and how "believers" believe in the faith without wavering; which can be both good and bad. One friend, 'round the pit, said that when we first come to faith everything is loose, not in any way solid, and everything is up for question. But as we come futher into faith, things become solid, you begin to believe "absolutely" in the tenements of your faith.
This talk really got me thinking. It seems that when we are examining faith, or an organized religion of any sort, that it is like working with water. Examining the water; "swimming in thought". And as we come to ally ourselves with certain beliefs, that water turns to ice. It is solid; it is "Absolute". Where I take issue with this is not the freezing process itself, but rather the fact that these "ice" believers try to sell the ice to the world, when they ought to be selling water. For it was not ice that these believers began with, it was water. Now, another friend around the pit, pointed out that what motivates these people to sell ice rather than water is generally, though not always, compassion. For it is a desire to spare new believers the often painful process of freezing the water into ice. In a way saying, "No questions to ponder now! We've got the answers!!" This, in my eyes, is compassion, but it sounds very much like arrogance; and in a lot of cases it is. And in all cases it is naive.
Some wil take the answers and the ice will be Truth. Others will take answers, and the ice will never actually be their own. Though where that leaves them is not for me to say. Some, like me, were born with the ice already provided for them; but something didn't seem right. So melting was required; which is very frightening to the organized church of ice. I have not rejected the water of my faith; just the ice of Absolutes. Even that is deceiving, for it sounds like relativism, where nothing is absolute. I do believe in Absolute Truth, but I also believe the path to it is a solitary one, and different for each traveler.
So how do I believe in Absolute Truth, arrived at by a Relative path? There's where I struggle. But I know rejecting the water is not the answer; just as much as keeping the ice you really don't believe in. Truth, absolute or relative, lies somewhere in the middle. And that is, now, where I find myself.