Scripture
“What God has made clean, you must not call profane.”
— Acts 10:15
One of the most important turning points in the early church came when God confronted Peter with an assumption he had never seriously questioned. Peter had been formed by the traditions of his faith. He knew which foods were clean and unclean. He knew which people were inside the covenant community and which were outside. These weren’t casual opinions for him; they were part of the structure of the world as he understood it.
And then God gave him a vision that unsettled everything.
The story in Acts 10 is not simply about food laws. It is about a faithful person discovering that faithfulness sometimes requires a willingness to rethink what we have long taken for granted. Peter wasn’t rebelling against God. He was trying to obey God as he had always understood obedience. But God was doing something new, and Peter’s old categories were not large enough to contain it.
Here’s the thing: the church today is living through a season of profound change. The cultural assumptions that shaped congregational life for generations are shifting. Patterns of attendance, community, communication, family life, trust in institutions, and spiritual curiosity are all changing around us. In a moment like this, it will not be enough for the church to work harder at yesterday’s answers. We will also need the courage to think new thoughts.
That doesn’t mean abandoning the gospel. It means asking whether some of the things we have treated as essential are actually habits, preferences, or assumptions we inherited without ever examining them. It means being willing to ask hard questions: What are we doing because it truly serves God’s mission? What are we doing because it once worked? What have we mistaken for faithfulness simply because it feels familiar?
Peter’s willingness to question an unquestioned assumption opened the door for the gospel to move in a way he could not have imagined. The same God is still at work. And perhaps one of the great spiritual disciplines the church needs in this moment is holy curiosity—a prayerful openness to seeing where God may be stretching our imagination, widening our welcome, and calling us beyond the boundaries of what we have always known.
Application
Take a few minutes today to name one assumption about church, ministry, or discipleship that you have rarely questioned. Hold it before God in prayer—not with cynicism, but with openness—and ask: Is this still serving your purpose, Lord? Or are you inviting me to see something new?
Prayer
Lord, give us the humility to question what needs questioning, the wisdom to hold fast to what is eternal, and the courage to follow wherever your Spirit leads. Amen.
Weekday Word w/ Eric 
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