Quote of the Week XXVI

I'm like Bob Ross with keys. - Corey

On Understanding, in Brief

Sometimes people confuse excuses with reasons. Sometimes well meaning friends suggest that searching for the reasons or the cause of something is akin to abdicating your responsibility for a particular action. Sometimes your friends are right.

I am sure that many of us have been "stuck" doing something wrong over and over again. The sin has become a habit or a refuge. It may be something quasi-secret, it may not. Either way I am sure that we sometimes seek to know why we do something, and in seeking to understand, we avoid dealing with our sin first. It is as if we think we have to understand things before we can obey. And sometimes we act as though we are entitled to certain knowledge...

I would suggest that perhaps obedience should come before understanding more and more as you grow in your faith in Jesus Christ. I think that it can become a trust issue. Do I trust that God is right? Do I trust that God knows best? Do I trust that God knows and cares about me? Do I trust that His law is not arbitrary?

I do not wish to stop anyone from seeking understanding, however. In your pressing for trust in God Himself, do not stop seeking for answers. Do not stop trying to understand how you got where you are (the good places and the bad). Only, do not let your search become an excuse to continue sinning. "Lord I believe; help me with my unbelief."

Decisions

Sometimes we are faced with a choice between doing a good thing and not doing a good thing. Sometimes we find this decision to be difficult because the reasons for not doing the good thing are a good. When you want to do the best sometimes you must abstain from a good thing and other times you must risk a good thing. We see darkly now- and often sin in ignorance. In a time to come, however, we will see plainly and certain decisions will become much easier. As life is not about ease, our current predicament should not be cause for dismay. I long to lean not on my own understanding...

Why

We often wonder why things happen, don't we? Or we wonder why things are the way they are (or appear to be). People go through life with a very strong inability to trust when they do not understand (which is not really much trust at all). With each other we demand why's all the time- like some sort of pathological disease. People always seem to want to know why. Why did you not call me yesterday? Why did you say that in front of those people? Why didn't you do that thing I asked you to? It goes on and on and on. You really have to wonder, though- when we ask the question, do we want the answer? If we get the answer, are we expecting it to change something inside of us (how we feel, perhaps)?

People do the same thing with God. Why did you let my beloved die? Why did you not stop that earthquake? Why did you make me handicapped? Why don't you visibly show yourself to everyone? And if a person does not get the answer they are looking for- they get furious. At that point, reason does not begin- it exits the building entirely. If I don't understand why- you must not exist. If I do not understand why- you must not care. If I don't understand why- you must be a monster! This is how it goes (at least in our culture) over and over and over again.

But I have to wonder if we really want to know why God does what He does. I have to wonder if we knew if it would really change how we feel. I have to wonder if knowing why is really what people are after. I doubt it is what they need in many situations- but I begin to wonder if they really even want it...

All of us have questions we do not know the answers to. I think that maybe we should think a little bit about why we are asking the questions we do in the first place.

To Be As Blind

When things have gone wrong for so long that you do not remember right... sometimes you are as blind to the good you do and receive that is all around you right now. Sometimes you see so much bad you begin to think that bad is all there is. Sometimes you think you have sinned so much that it is just part of who you really are. Sometimes those around you have sinned so much you begin to think that this life has no joys and was not made for such happy things. There are some problems with thinking like this.

When you are in such a state you miss what God has put right there in front of you and inside of you. And, when you view life as suffering you may lose sight of the purpose of suffering that God has intended, as though it were without benefit. Both of these views do not comport with the truth.

May the Lord have mercy upon the downtrodden. Who else will lift them up?

On Commitment

Some battles take longer than others. Commitment is tested when you cannot see the end of the war. Commitment and ability are two different things, however. One's commitment is not enough to say, change the orbit of the moon around the earth. Commitment is often required for a prolonged conflict, it is necessary- but never sufficient. The battle will often belong to those with something other than commitment. It is good to be committed to a good cause- it is not, however, good enough to be committed to a good cause. If the Lord does not build it...

You know it's hard to find the connection between the dots when you do not believe there is one.

Quote of the Week XXV

You are responsible for the man you are- not the man people say you are.

(Luther Cox)