10 Surprising Facts About Christianity You Never Knew

Discovering Unexpected Truths About the World's Largest Religion

Key Verse: "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." — John 8:32

1. Christianity Was Almost Entirely Oral for Decades After Jesus

Most people assume the New Testament was written immediately after Jesus' resurrection, but surprisingly, the earliest Christians relied primarily on oral testimony and tradition for 15-20 years before any New Testament books were written. Paul's letters—written beginning around AD 48-50—are actually the earliest New Testament documents, predating the Gospels which weren't written until the 60s-90s AD. Mark's Gospel, generally considered the earliest, wasn't composed until approximately AD 65-70, more than three decades after Jesus' crucifixion.

This raises an important question: How did Christianity spread so rapidly and maintain doctrinal consistency without written documents? The answer reveals the strength of early Christian community and the reliability of oral tradition in ancient cultures. Unlike modern Western society that relies heavily on written documentation, first-century Jewish culture excelled at preserving oral tradition with remarkable accuracy. Rabbis memorized entire sections of Torah and Talmud verbatim. Jesus' disciples would have similarly memorized His teachings, parables, and key events.

Additionally, the early church had eyewitnesses who could verify or correct accounts. Luke explicitly mentions this investigative process: "Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account" (Luke 1:1-3). The written Gospels emerged not to replace but to preserve and standardize what had been reliably transmitted orally.

This fact is surprising because it demonstrates Christianity didn't depend on carefully controlled documentation from the start. Rather, it spread through transformed lives and eyewitness testimony—people couldn't help but share what they'd seen and experienced. As 1 John 1:1-3 explains: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life." Personal encounter preceded written record, and both testify to Christianity's historical foundation.

2. The New Testament Is Far Better Attested Than Any Other Ancient Document

When skeptics claim the Bible has been corrupted or can't be trusted, they reveal ignorance about manuscript evidence. The New Testament is by far the best-attested document from the ancient world—and it's not even close. We possess over 5,800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, with the earliest fragments dating to within decades of the original writings. The earliest fragment, P52 containing part of John's Gospel, dates to approximately AD 125-150, merely 30-50 years after John wrote his Gospel.

Compare this to other ancient works scholars accept without question: Homer's Iliad, the second best-attested ancient work, has only 643 manuscripts with a 400-year gap between composition and earliest copy. Caesar's Gallic Wars has only 10 manuscripts with a 1,000-year gap. Plato's works have 7 manuscripts with a 1,200-year gap. Yet scholars don't question whether we have reliable texts of Homer, Caesar, or Plato—but many question the New Testament despite vastly superior manuscript evidence.

Furthermore, even if all Greek manuscripts disappeared, we could reconstruct nearly the entire New Testament from early church fathers' quotations. Leaders like Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, and others quoted Scripture so extensively in their writings (dating to the late second and early third centuries) that scholars have identified over 36,000 New Testament quotations in their works. As textual critic Bruce Metzger noted: "Indeed, so extensive are these citations that if all other sources for our knowledge of the text of the New Testament were destroyed, they would be sufficient alone for the reconstruction of practically the entire New Testament."

The abundance of manuscripts also allows scholars to identify and correct the small scribal errors that inevitably occurred when copying by hand. Of the approximately 400,000 textual variants identified across all manuscripts, the vast majority are insignificant (spelling differences, word order variations that don't change meaning). No major doctrine depends on disputed passages. As New Testament scholar Daniel Wallace explains: "The wealth of material that is available for determining the wording of the original New Testament is embarrassingly rich in comparison to other ancient writings." Rather than undermining confidence, the manuscript evidence powerfully confirms the New Testament's reliability.

3. Christianity Exploded in Growth Despite Severe Persecution

Perhaps Christianity's most surprising fact is its explosive growth despite sustained, brutal persecution that should have extinguished it. From Nero's tortures in AD 64 through the Diocletian persecution (AD 303-313), Christians faced imprisonment, property confiscation, torture, and execution. They were burned alive, fed to wild animals, crucified, and subjected to grotesque cruelties designed to terrorize others from converting. Yet Christianity continued growing rapidly, spreading throughout the Roman Empire and beyond.

Sociologist Rodney Stark estimates Christianity grew from approximately 1,000 believers in AD 40 to over 6 million by AD 300—a growth rate of 40% per decade sustained over 250 years despite periodic waves of intense persecution. This growth can't be explained by political power (Christians had none), cultural dominance (they were despised outsiders), or military conquest (they were pacifists). It can only be explained by the transformative power of the gospel and believers' willingness to suffer and die rather than deny their faith.

The early church father Tertullian famously wrote: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." Persecution, rather than destroying Christianity, actually strengthened and spread it. Why? Because observers saw believers facing death with joy, forgiveness, and confidence—responses inexplicable apart from genuine faith. As Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia, wrote to Emperor Trajan around AD 112 describing Christians he interrogated: "They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god... They assured me that they had bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food—but food of an ordinary and innocent kind."

This testimony from a hostile witness confirms that early Christians lived with moral integrity and worshiped Jesus as divine—both factors contributing to Christianity's surprising growth despite persecution. People don't voluntarily suffer martyrdom for what they know is a lie, and observers recognized the authenticity of Christian faith demonstrated through sacrificial living and dying. As Jesus predicted in John 12:24: "Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." The martyrs' sacrifice bore abundant fruit.

4. Christianity Radically Elevated the Status of Women and Children

In the Greco-Roman world of the first century, women were considered property with few rights. Infanticide—especially of baby girls—was common and legal. Children had no intrinsic value until their father formally acknowledged them. But Christianity introduced radically countercultural views that elevated women and children, eventually transforming Western civilization's treatment of both groups.

Jesus shocked His contemporaries by treating women with dignity and respect. He taught women (violating rabbinic customs), appeared first to women after His resurrection (making them the first evangelists despite women's testimony being legally inadmissible), included women among His supporters and financial patrons, and defended women against exploitation. The early church continued this pattern—women served as deacons (Romans 16:1), house church leaders (Colossians 4:15), prophets (Acts 21:9), and co-workers in ministry (Philippians 4:2-3).

Paul's statement in Galatians 3:28—"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus"—was revolutionary in its cultural context. While Paul maintained gender distinctions in certain roles, he affirmed women's equal spiritual standing before God and equal inheritance as co-heirs of grace (1 Peter 3:7). This theological foundation gradually transformed social practices as Christianity spread.

Regarding children, Christianity introduced the radical notion that children have inherent worth as image-bearers of God. Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" (Matthew 19:14). Early Christians were known for rescuing abandoned infants—a practice that seemed bizarre to pagans but flowed naturally from Christian conviction that every human life, no matter how small or unwanted, possesses sacred value because it bears God's image (Genesis 1:27).

Christian influence led to laws protecting women from exploitation, establishing education for girls, outlawing infanticide, and recognizing children's rights. Though Christians haven't always lived up to these principles consistently, Christianity provided the theological foundation for reforms that dramatically improved conditions for women and children. This is surprising to modern audiences who often assume Christianity oppresses women—a view contradicted by historical evidence of Christianity's revolutionary elevation of women's status in cultures where it took root.

5. The Bible Shaped Modern Science More Than Any Other Factor

Popular culture often portrays Christianity and science as enemies locked in eternal conflict, but this narrative is historically false. In reality, the Bible provided the philosophical foundations that made modern science possible, and Christians pioneered virtually every major scientific field. This fact surprises those who've absorbed the "religion versus science" narrative without examining actual history.

Modern science depends on several philosophical assumptions: (1) The universe is orderly and operates by consistent natural laws, (2) These laws can be discovered through systematic observation and experimentation, (3) Human reason is capable of understanding the universe, (4) Nature is not divine but can be studied without sacrilege. These assumptions weren't universal—many ancient cultures viewed nature as divine (making investigation sacrilegious), chaotic (making laws impossible), or illusory (making study pointless). But the biblical worldview uniquely provided all four assumptions.

Genesis 1 presents an ordered creation governed by God's decrees. Psalm 19:1 declares "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands"—inviting investigation of creation to understand the Creator. Genesis 1:27 teaches humans are made in God's image, explaining our capacity for rational thought. And the biblical distinction between Creator and creation meant nature could be studied without idolatry. As historian Rodney Stark demonstrates in For the Glory of God, these uniquely biblical ideas created the intellectual environment where science could flourish.

Furthermore, Christians founded virtually every major scientific field. Physics: Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Kelvin. Chemistry: Robert Boyle, John Dalton. Biology: Gregor Mendel, Louis Pasteur, Francis Collins. Astronomy: Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Nicolas Copernicus. Geology: Nicolas Steno. Nearly every major scientist before the late 19th century was a Christian who saw scientific investigation as studying God's creation—a form of worship. Newton wrote more about theology than physics, viewing his scientific work as "thinking God's thoughts after Him."

The perceived conflict between Christianity and science is largely a myth created by 19th-century polemicists like John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White, whose historical claims have been thoroughly debunked by modern historians of science. While tensions exist over specific interpretations (such as Genesis and evolution), Christianity and science are not inherently opposed. Rather, as many contemporary scientists who are Christians demonstrate, biblical faith provides motivation, meaning, and ethical boundaries for scientific investigation. As physicist and Anglican priest John Polkinghorne wrote: "Science and theology are friends, not foes, in the common quest for knowledge."

6. Christianity Birthed the Modern Hospital System

Before Christianity, caring for the sick wasn't considered virtuous. Greco-Roman culture valued strength and beauty; the sick, disabled, and dying were often viewed with contempt or considered cursed by the gods. There was no concept of institutional medical care for the poor, no tradition of nursing the sick as moral duty, no hospitals as we understand them. But Christianity's radical emphasis on caring for "the least of these" (Matthew 25:40) revolutionized healthcare, ultimately creating the modern hospital system.

The parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) established compassionate care for suffering strangers as Christian obligation regardless of ethnicity, religion, or social status. Jesus' healing ministry demonstrated God's concern for physical health, not just spiritual salvation. James 1:27 defined "pure religion" as caring for widows and orphans in distress. These teachings motivated early Christians to care for sick people that pagan society abandoned.

During the devastating plagues that swept through the Roman Empire in the second and third centuries, Christians became known for remaining in cities to care for the sick while pagans fled. Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria described the plague of AD 260: "Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves... tending to the sick with no thought of danger, nursing them assiduously... Many died caring for others, catching the disease from them... The best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner." Meanwhile, "The heathen behaved in the very opposite way. At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest."

This Christian care made practical difference—modern research suggests that basic nursing care (providing water, food, and sanitation) during epidemics can reduce mortality by two-thirds even without medical interventions. Christians' willingness to care for the sick resulted in significantly higher survival rates among Christian communities, contributing to Christianity's growth and demonstrating the gospel's practical power to transform society.

The first hospitals—institutions specifically designed to care for the sick—were founded by Christians. The first hospital was established by St. Basil the Great in Caesarea around AD 369. Within decades, hospitals spread throughout the Christian world. The Knights Hospitaller (founded around 1099) established hospitals throughout Europe and the Middle East. Religious orders like the Benedictines, Franciscans, and countless others made healthcare central to their mission. Even today, Catholic hospitals form the largest private healthcare system in the United States, and Christian medical missionaries continue serving globally in underserved areas. This legacy of Christian compassion literally created the expectation that societies should provide healthcare for all people regardless of ability to pay—a concept rooted in Christian theology about human dignity and compassion.

7. The Doctrine of the Trinity Emerged from Biblical Reflection, Not Pagan Influence

Skeptics often claim the Trinity is a pagan doctrine borrowed from Egyptian triads or Greek philosophy—a corruption of original Christian monotheism. But historical evidence tells a different story. The Trinity emerged from Christians carefully reflecting on biblical revelation, trying to faithfully account for what Scripture teaches about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit while maintaining strict monotheism. This process took centuries not because Christians borrowed from pagans but because they refused to compromise biblical truth for philosophical convenience.

The New Testament clearly teaches: (1) There is only one God (1 Corinthians 8:6; James 2:19), (2) The Father is fully God (John 6:27; Romans 15:6), (3) Jesus is fully God (John 1:1; 20:28; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8), (4) The Holy Spirit is fully God (Acts 5:3-4; 1 Corinthians 3:16), (5) Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct persons who relate to each other (Matthew 3:16-17; John 14-16). These truths are present from the earliest Christian writings—they weren't invented later but were always believed by Christians, even before they developed precise theological language to express them.

The challenge was explaining how all five truths can be simultaneously true without either abandoning monotheism (by claiming three gods) or denying biblical testimony about Christ and the Spirit's deity. Early heresies took shortcuts: Modalism claimed Father, Son, and Spirit were just different modes or masks of one person. Arianism claimed Jesus was a created being, not fully God. Adoptionism claimed Jesus was merely human until God adopted Him at baptism. Each heresy simplified the theological tension by denying part of biblical revelation.

But orthodox Christians refused these shortcuts, insisting on faithfulness to all biblical testimony even when it created theological complexity. The doctrine of the Trinity—one God existing eternally in three distinct persons, each fully God, sharing one divine essence—emerged through councils like Nicaea (AD 325) and Constantinople (AD 381) not as pagan compromise but as the only formulation faithful to biblical revelation. The Athanasian Creed summarizes: "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance."

Claims of pagan influence don't withstand scrutiny. Egyptian triads and Greek triads aren't analogous—they involved separate gods with different powers and functions, not one God in three persons sharing one essence. The Trinity is a uniquely Christian doctrine arising from uniquely Christian revelation about God's nature. While challenging philosophically, it reflects biblical testimony: God is relational within Himself (the Father loves the Son from eternity), which explains why God could be love (1 John 4:8) even before creation. A solitary unitarian god couldn't be love eternally because love requires an object. But the Triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit in eternal relationship—is love essentially, not just functionally. This surprising doctrine, far from pagan corruption, reveals profound truth about God's nature that enriches worship and understanding.

8. Christianity Spread Fastest in the Global South, Not the West

Many Westerners think of Christianity as primarily European or American—a "Western religion" associated with colonialism and cultural imperialism. This perception is dramatically out of date. The explosive growth of Christianity over the past century has occurred overwhelmingly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, not in Europe or North America. Christianity is rapidly becoming a predominantly non-Western religion, returning to its ancient pattern as a faith transcending ethnic and cultural boundaries.

In 1900, approximately 80% of Christians lived in Europe and North America. By 2020, that figure had reversed—now approximately 67% of Christians live in the Global South (Africa, Asia, Latin America), and that percentage increases annually. Sub-Saharan Africa alone has seen Christianity grow from approximately 10 million believers in 1900 to over 700 million today—a 7,000% increase in one century. By 2050, projections suggest three of the top four Christian-majority countries will be Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria.

This growth hasn't occurred primarily through missionary activity but through indigenous movements where local Christians share faith within their own cultures. Christianity is spreading in China despite government persecution, in Iran despite Islamic restrictions, throughout Africa despite poverty and instability. These believers haven't been coerced or bribed—they've encountered Jesus and found Him more compelling than their previous religious or irreligious worldviews.

Furthermore, the most vibrant, growing expressions of Christianity globally tend to be orthodox and evangelical rather than liberal. While mainline Protestant denominations in the West decline through theological liberalism, Pentecostal and evangelical movements explode in the Global South precisely because they take Scripture seriously, preach the gospel clearly, and expect supernatural transformation. As Ghanaian theologian Kwame Bediako observed: "The Christian faith itself in Africa has turned out to be more than a European or a Western import; it has become a genuinely African possession."

This fact is surprising because it demolishes the narrative that Christianity is a Western colonial imposition foreigners are abandoning as they gain independence. Instead, Christianity thrives precisely where people are free to choose, while declining in the post-Christian West where cultural Christianity is dying but genuine faith still persists among committed believers. Jesus' prediction in Matthew 8:11 is being fulfilled: "I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." The future of Christianity is global, diverse, and increasingly non-Western—just as it was in the first century when the gospel spread from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

9. The Reformers Didn't Reject Church Tradition—They Appealed to It

Popular understanding of the Protestant Reformation often portrays it as rejecting tradition in favor of individual biblical interpretation—"just me and my Bible" with no need for church history, creeds, or theological heritage. But this seriously misrepresents what Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin actually believed and practiced. They didn't reject tradition; they distinguished between legitimate tradition faithful to Scripture and corrupt traditions contradicting Scripture.

Luther, Calvin, and other Reformers extensively quoted church fathers like Augustine, Athanasius, Chrysostom, and Jerome to support their positions. They affirmed the ecumenical creeds (Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Chalcedonian Definition) and the doctrinal decisions of the early church councils. They saw themselves not as innovators but as recovering authentic Christianity that medieval Catholicism had obscured. As Calvin wrote: "We do not contemn the authority of the Fathers; nay, rather, if it were to our present purpose, I could easily support by their suffrages the greater part of the statements which we now make."

What Reformers rejected were specific late-medieval traditions they believed contradicted Scripture—indulgences, purgatory, papal supremacy, praying to saints, mandatory clerical celibacy, and transubstantiation. But they retained much Catholic tradition: liturgical worship, sacraments (though reduced from seven to two), church calendar, creedal orthodoxy, theological categories developed through centuries, and respect for church fathers' wisdom. Reformed theology is deeply rooted in Augustine, and Lutheran theology drew heavily on patristic sources.

The Reformation principle of sola scriptura ("Scripture alone") didn't mean "Scripture without any interpretive tradition." It meant Scripture is the final authority above church tradition—tradition must be tested by Scripture, not vice versa. When tradition aligned with Scripture, Reformers embraced it. When tradition contradicted Scripture, they rejected it in favor of biblical teaching. As the Anglican formulary states: "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man."

This fact surprises many evangelical Protestants who operate with anti-traditional bias, assuming anything predating the Reformation must be suspect. It also surprises Catholics and Orthodox who caricature Protestantism as divorced from Christian history. In reality, thoughtful Protestantism values tradition while subjecting it to scriptural scrutiny—a balance that recognizes both Scripture's supreme authority and tradition's helpful role in guiding interpretation. As Hebrews 11 demonstrates, we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses whose faithfulness encourages our own. Wisdom listens to voices from church history while testing all teaching against Scripture's unchanging standard.

10. Christianity Provides the Philosophical Foundation for Human Rights

Modern secular culture takes human rights for granted—the notion that every person possesses inherent dignity and rights regardless of race, gender, ability, or social status. But this belief isn't self-evident or universal throughout history. It's a specifically Christian idea rooted in biblical theology that gradually transformed Western civilization and now influences global human rights discourse. This fact surprises secularists who assume human rights need no religious foundation and Christians who don't realize how distinctively Christian this concept is.

Ancient civilizations didn't recognize universal human rights. Rights were typically based on citizenship, social status, or ethnic identity. Aristotle taught that some people are "natural slaves" suited by nature for servitude. Roman law distinguished sharply between citizens (who had rights) and non-citizens (who had few or none). Outside Greco-Roman culture, concepts of individual rights barely existed—identity was corporate (family, tribe, caste) rather than individual.

But biblical teaching introduced radically different foundations: (1) All humans are created in God's image (Genesis 1:27), giving every person inherent, equal dignity regardless of any distinguishing characteristics. (2) God shows no partiality based on status (Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11). (3) In Christ, traditional barriers between groups are abolished (Galatians 3:28). (4) Humans are accountable to God, not just earthly authorities, providing grounds for resisting unjust laws (Acts 5:29). (5) God identifies with the oppressed and commands justice for the poor, widow, orphan, and foreigner (Psalm 82:3-4; Isaiah 1:17).

These theological foundations gradually produced social transformation. Christianity led to abolition of gladiatorial combat (by the fourth century), abandonment of infanticide, outlawing of crucifixion, restrictions on slavery, and eventually, after centuries, complete abolition of slavery in Christian-influenced nations. Christian abolitionists like William Wilberforce in England and abolitionists in America fought slavery explicitly on biblical grounds—all people bear God's image and therefore cannot be treated as property.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) reflects Christian influence even while adopting secular language. Its primary author, Charles Malik, was a Lebanese Christian philosopher who grounded human rights in recognition of human dignity—a concept derived from biblical anthropology. When the UN debates human rights today, it operates within a framework Christianity created, even when participants don't acknowledge this heritage.

This doesn't mean Christians have always lived up to these principles—the church's history includes shameful failures to defend human dignity, from supporting slavery to perpetrating persecution. But it does mean the principles themselves that now critique these failures originate from Christian theology. As philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff argues in Justice: Rights and Wrongs, secular philosophies struggle to provide coherent foundations for human rights. Why should we believe humans possess inherent worth if we're merely evolved animals, products of random processes without transcendent purpose? Christianity answers: because we bear God's image, and that image-bearing bestows sacred, inviolable worth. This surprising fact reveals how deeply Christian influence has shaped modern moral consciousness—even among those who reject Christianity explicitly.

Exploring Christianity Beyond Assumptions

Surprised by Truth: Christianity Rewards Honest Investigation

These ten surprising facts barely scratch the surface of Christianity's depth, diversity, and historical impact. Behind familiar stories and common assumptions lies a faith tradition of remarkable intellectual sophistication, evidential support, and transformative power. Christianity isn't primitive superstition for the naive but a comprehensive worldview that has shaped civilization more profoundly than any other force in history.

Whether you're a skeptic who's dismissed Christianity based on caricatures, a seeker investigating whether Christianity might be true, or a believer who's never explored the depth and breadth of your faith tradition, these surprising facts invite deeper engagement. Christianity rewards honest investigation. The more you examine its historical foundations, theological coherence, and practical impact, the more reasons you'll find to take its truth claims seriously.

Jesus invited investigation, not blind acceptance. When John the Baptist's disciples asked if Jesus was truly the Messiah, Jesus responded: "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor" (Matthew 11:4-5). Jesus pointed to evidence—observable transformation validating His claims. Christianity continues offering evidence to those willing to examine it honestly.

The question before you is simple: Will you investigate Christianity beyond assumptions and stereotypes? Will you examine historical evidence, engage with primary sources, and consider whether these surprising facts point toward truth? Don't settle for inherited opinions or cultural Christianity. Pursue truth wherever it leads, knowing that genuine truth can withstand scrutiny and honest investigation only strengthens convictions rooted in reality.

"Lord Jesus, I confess I've held assumptions about Christianity without honest investigation. Forgive me for accepting caricatures rather than seeking truth. Give me courage to examine evidence honestly, even if it challenges my preconceptions. If Christianity is true, help me recognize and embrace that truth. If it's false, help me discover that too. I want truth more than comfort, reality more than assumptions. Guide my search, and make Yourself known to me as I seek honestly. In Your name, Amen."