WHAT is the meaning of this?!?!

One thing I am really not a believer in is believing things unquestioningly.
If a person has doubts, it's always easier to shrug one's shoulders, slip the doubts under the rug and continue to do whatever it is they are doing than to try to get to the bottom of whatever is causing them. Who knows what kind of baggage in your own life you might dig up that way? Who knows what other questions it might bring up? It's kind of a dangerous thing to question why it is you believe the way you do.

Here's the thing, though: you can fast all you want, but unless you understand the spiritual significance of the act it's really just starving yourself. And it's like that with anything: if you're an evolutionist but don't understand that Darwin believed humans evolved from chimpanzees, are you really an evolutionist? You don't really know how to drive until you understand that red lights are necessary keep roads orderly and people safe. If you sit in church singing praise and bowing your head in prayer without taking a minute to consider the significance of it, you might as well be at home reading the Sunday edition of the newspaper. Sure it's easier and more convenient to live this way, but you don't get nearly as much out of the experience if you don't understand it's significance.

If you're brave enough, however, it's almost always worthwhile to encounter whatever scary things you might find when you rip off the band aid solution that is pretending everything is okay, it can actually end up giving you a renewed sense of confidence in what you believe. Living a spiritually rich life is not about being comfortably numb, it's about growing in your faith and taking a journey with God, even if that means tough questions and doubts from time to time. You'll end up learning more that way than if you just follow the sit, kneel, stand, sing routine at the local church without ever thinking about why.