I've applied this concept to other areas of my life as well. When I'm in conversation with someone, I think about what they are saying, why they are saying it, how they are saying it, and I formulate a response based on what I've figured out about this person's situation. After one conversation, I feel like I've heard enough to throw in my two cents. This quick and easy solution usually leads to another problem: I don't really know anything about this person. The problem with applying formulas and solutions to people is that you see them as a math problem, a dilemma, that could be fixed if you just found the solution. I recently watched again the movie, Patch Adams, a story about a medical student in the 1960's and 70's with a vision to treat people instead of problems. A psych ward patient through a simple illustration helps Patch to realize that "...if you focus on the problem, you can't see the solution."
For a long time, this is how I approached my walk with Christ If I could just find the formula that tells me how to overcome the sin in my life, or if I studied the scriptures enough, I wouldn't have so many questions about it. It would start to make sense. What I've found is that there is no formula. The deeper I dig into the Word and study what it means to follow Christ the more I am humbled to learn that I know very little about who God is, or what He is doing in the world.
This past weekend our pastor spoke from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. We read Matthew 7:7-8 which says:
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."I wish this was just a formula, that there was a question box to ask my question in, a clear path to follow, and a door in front of me to knock on. What I learned is that, seeking Christ is a journey. It requires a persistent asking of God to reveal himself to us, a constant seeking for the Truth of his Words, and finding ourselves on his doorstep repeatedly knocking, waiting for the door to be opened so our eyes can see His glory.
Our culture has taught us that there must be a solution. That if we think long enough and hard enough about it, we will find the answer we are looking for, but reason and logic won't lead us to Truth or understanding. There is beauty in the unknown and the journey to find it. It requires the faith of a mustard seed and a willingness to surrender our own solutions.
Someone told me once that you can't truly love someone until you know their story. God has loved us unconditionally, but if we are to love Him, we must seek to know his story. It's being told through scripture, through songs, other people, and in our own life. Just as His story promises life without end our journey to love and to know him is also without end. God's ways our not ours and we can't find the solution through our own means, but if we ask, seek, and knock, he will be found.
I started blogging about a year and a half ago. I was steady for a while, then took a break because I didn't feel I had the time. I started up again and stopped, but this time for a different reason. I realized that most of what I blogged about was something I thought I had "figured out." In finding the answers, I felt the need to tell others of my discovery, often to the point of condemning others. The beauty of blogging with few readers is that I'm really just throwing my thoughts out without much accountability. With grace, you read along and thought about what was said. I like to write and with such an active mind, it's great to get my thoughts out, but hopefully these words will lead others to ask, seek, and knock. I have no answers. I don't know what I don't know.
