Baby Christians vs Me

I have always been envious of those new to the Christian faith, because they get the joy of discovering how wondrous a life with God is and how their old life was sub-par. Having grown up in a Christian home, I've never really questioned my faith, but simply accepted it as truth because it was what I had grown up with. I think having the ability to evaluate Christianity from the outside is invaluable, as it invokes a spiritual awakening that then drives that person to seek more. Augustine was blessed with such perspective as he transitioned out of Manichaeism into a period of exploration, contemplating concepts such as God's state of being and the nature of evil in the world. From the perspective of a church-baby such as myself who was taught these things since infancy, I never questioned that God was beyond the limitations of time, because I could never wrap my head around it therefore I just accepted it as fact (after all, if my parents believed it why shouldn't I?). Augustine, however, had no prior understanding or exposure to the idea that God can have being without existing in the physical realm; that is, the plane of existence that us humans dwell in. It was not until he had a vision of God that he was finally able to break out of his Manichaeistic mindset. He writes, "I saw that all finite things are in you, not as though you were a place that contained them, but in a different manner . . . I saw too that all things are fit and proper not only to the places but also to the times in which they exist, and that you, who are the only eternal Being, did not begin to work only after countless ages of time had elapsed, because no age of time, past or still to come, could either come or go if it were not that you abide for ever and cause time to come and go" (Augustine, VII.15). 

Augustine's curiosity of the Christian faith and his previously limited exposure to Christianity allowed him to approach the faith with an open mind and evaluate the Christian faith from an outsider's perspective. While I don't think I would want to live a life apart from God before becoming a believer, I am envious of the perspective of new believers. Concepts like God's eternal being have always been accepted in my mind with limited doubt here and there, but the experience of approaching and learning such knowledge with honest questions seems like it would teach me so much more.