Still Inquiring After All These Years

“Does one ever stop being an ‘inquirer into Orthodoxy’, even after they’ve entered the Church? I’m amazed at the things I come across sometimes. Its almost like I never knew it, had just found it out and am now convinced the Holy Orthodoxy is the True Church. Perhaps I keep getting re-convinced.”
From Jim N.'s blog.
My mother in law stayed with us for a week two weeks ago. She is a Khouriya (or Presvytera or Matushka (aka Priest’s wife)). She has been Orthodox for over thirty years. While visiting us, she picked up
Mountain of Silence
by Kyriacos Markides. There is a passage in there that made her stop and think (we had a long discussion over it). And it made me realize that even being Orthodox for 30+ years (and being married to a priest), there are still things that she learns about her faith. I have been Orthodox for 30+ years (having been baptized as an infant and growing up in an Orthodox Church) and every so often something crosses my path, whether through written word or through a service and I think, “duh, that makes absolute sense, where have I been?” Some would call it a “light bulb” moment. We never stop being an inquirer into Orthodoxy. We are constantly moving closer to and away from God and, therefore, we are constantly learning, re-learning, un-learning, and growing. Even in those movements away from God we will sometimes return closer to God than we once were. So my mother in law’s learning something new about Orthodoxy was my reminder that we are all learning something new about our faith. And woe is he that has reached a point where he feels he has “learned it all”.