day no. 12,838: on a need to know basis

Deuteronomy 29:29

 

The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

 

I don’t particularly wrestle with doubt.

Not because I’m lazy, but because I just don’t really.

 

And it’s not that I have everything figured out.

I’m just somewhat comfortable knowing that I don’t get everything.

 

That doesn’t stop me from trying to mine from God’s Word truth and knowledge on which to build confidence.

 

Just the opposite.

 

I love reading my Bible and studying the texts for rich soil on which to walk.

 

I wonder if we have a morbid obsession in our society with needing to know stuff.

 

We have a tendency to be suspicious of any one or situation where someone knows more than we do.

 

So we wonder about vaccines, raw milk, smoking cigarettes, using cell phones, red meat, raw meat, weapons of mass destruction, left wing, right wing, buffalo wings and everything else in between.

 

If someone is an expert on something or has knowledge we don’t also get access to, we get suspicious.

 

And rightfully so.

Good assessment.

 

People should not be trusted with information.

They will use it for profit, power, prestige and whatever else that gets their pulse pumping.

 

But we can’t use the same rationale to excuse our suspicion of God.

 

He isn’t like us.

 

He already has all power, prestige and possession imaginable and unimaginable.

You can’t outthink His ability to provide you with creativity after all.

 

It is OK that we don’t know everything.

No one ever said you had to in order to believe.

 

It’s not that belief is in contrast to thinking and/or knowing, but that it is not contingent upon it per se.

 

St. Augustine famously said, “therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that thou mayest understand.”

 

There are some things you don’t need to know.

You may never know why.

 

Do you trust and rely upon the One who does know, however, that is the question.

 

Can you love a sunset without understanding every element required to produce it?

You don’t demand a rainbow to be boxed in before you appreciate it.

 

You know how to admire that which is beyond your grasp.

Do not then require God to produce evidence in the court of your opinion.