I was incredibly stoked while sitting in our little bible study Friday night... As we jumped into Acts 19 a theme for the evening seemed to emerge. Questions without definitive answers. This chapter brings up all kinds questions that we hate to think about so often... "What about people who haven't heard about Jesus?", "Do we have free will?'', "What, exactly, is hell?", "How many licks does it really take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?"
My purpose in this blog is not to tackle these questions in any way. It is to say that I see glory in a room full of young people wrestling to work out there faith in a safe environment. I see beauty in God's children searching his words to try to gain a better understanding of Him. And, I see amazing beauty in the ability to, after all is said and done, admit that there are some questions that we will simply not find answers to until we ask Jesus face to face. I gain joy from watching and being apart of this dialogue. May God forgive us if we ever avoid the questions that scare us... to do so, would be admitting that we don't think God is big enough to handle it. As if one day someone will ask a question that will unravel the very fabric of our faith... is our God that small.
I am incredibly comforted by the fact that He is so much larger than anything my finite mind can process! That is not to say in any way that we should not strive to comprehend all that we can about God and His creation... but, we have to know that some of it is just simply beyond human understanding.
I felt an incredible freedom a few months ago when I had one of those "A-ha!" moments. I think that my whole life I have been sub-consciously thinking that I was working my towards a total understanding of who God is, how He works, and why He does things. Suddenly, in a moment of clarity, i realized that this was never the task that God laid before us. My task is quite simple... never stop seeking. God's desire has always been relational, that I would spend my entire life longing to know Him more fully. I had my eyes set so shallow. I get the feeling now that when I am with Him in eternity I might chuckle at how low my standards once were... to understand all that my tiny brain could fathom will seem so minuscule in comparison to the glory of His company.
We should never stop seeking. learning. talking. desiring.
Tear apart the hard questions! Wrestle. Argue. Yell. Laugh. Cry. Nod your head. Shake your fist. Throw your bible at somebody while declaring that you're filled with the love of Christ!
Then remember we're all on this journey together. Repent. Apologize. Hug it out!
Never. Stop. Seeking.
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I appreciated your stated belief that our God being so big that He would never leave a person without the opportunity to know Him, and that we just cannot know how God works, particularly in the last moments of life. That got me thinking, "what if we could answere every question that we, or any naysayer, ever asked about God?" What kind of a God is that? Where would the great mystery be? Where would the awe be? Knowing all the answeres about God would mean that he would have to be a being on the same level as us, or even lower than us. Isn't that just an idol? I take comfort in knowing that I cannot know it all, and cannot answere it all. Because a god that could be charactarize, compartmentalized, and humanized would suck.
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