Why and How

There seem to be a lot of situations in which I'm discovering that I've mistaken the "How" of faith matters for the "Why".
For example; for a lot of years I thought the point of the Creation narrative in Genesis 1,2 was for me to be able to prove that the evolution my science teachers, friends, and family talked about was untrue. I don't see it like that anymore. In fact, I'm honestly not sure how old the world is or what mechanism God used to bring it into existence. What I am confident of is that some of the things I was taught in church were wrong (definitely in tone, probably in content.) The purpose of the Creation story is to remind us that all of the universe was made on purpose and for a purpose. It's not primarily about the how, it's the why.
Similarly, I thought for a long time that Jesus came to Earth to enable my personal salvation and to start his church. I'm pretty sure I had that wrong too. Jesus came to establish his kingdom. The church (and even me) are the tools he is employing to that purpose. The why and the how.
I've got this feeling I'm just scratching the surface of what all this is going to mean...