Thankful for the Mystery

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]


I like to know things. While I didn’t love the homework and tests from when I was in school, I did like learning. Now that I’m out of school, there are still a lot of ways I can learn (though perhaps slightly different topics than I used to study). In an age where Google, Wikipedia, and IMDB are only a few screen swipes or clicks away, there isn’t much information we can’t find. Looking for a new pumpkin pie recipe? Google it. Wonder how long dolphins can grow to be? Look it up on Wikipedia (the answer is 30 feet). Can’t figure out what other shows that actor from the movie has been in? Find him on IMDB. Almost instantaneously, we can find whatever we want or need to know.

Perhaps it’s not surprising then that we often apply the same line of thinking to the Bible. Don’t understand a passage? Find some articles or blogs or maybe a commentary written about it, or go ask Pastor Dirk or Pastor Bryan. There is an extent to which this is a very good thing to do, of course--there’s a reason pastors go to seminary, and seeking to know and understand God’s word is important.

When we are combing the text over and over and digging through commentaries and asking any semi Bible-knowledgeable person we can find to help us make sense of the difficult sayings that keep us up at night, I think there comes a point where we must stop and recognize that God cannot be fully understood. Pastor Rick Warren recently posted on his Facebook page, “If God was small enough for me to completely understand him, he wouldn't be big enough for me to completely trust him.” 

It’s not a pretty, tidy answer. If we were to Google any of the difficult sayings from the Old Testament, I don’t think it’s what the articles and blogs would tell us--and it’s not that their answers from studying the text in its original language or knowing the culture of the time or reading every book written on the topic are necessarily bad or wrong--but they only present part of the picture. We need a God who is bigger than us, who our minds can’t fully wrap around. It’s in his bigness and mystery that we learn to trust him. 

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this week, our list of things we are thankful for may include people like family and friends, maybe opportunities like education or work, maybe tangible “stuff” like houses or vehicles. Perhaps this is a fitting time of year to be talking about the mystery of God then. Maybe this Thanksgiving we can make some space in our busy schedules to contemplate the stories we don’t have figured out but that God does. Maybe it’s time to thank him for his bigness, to sit in wonder and be overwhelmed and amazed at the ways he has, can, and does act. May we seek to rest in the mystery and come to know it as good. 


[Brianna DeWitt attends Encounter Church and lives, works, and writes in Grand Rapids, MI. Words are some of her favorite things, which is why her hobbies include reading, writing, and talking. She also shares on her personal blog at http://awritespot.wordpress.com and tweets @bwitt722.]

Let's Go To Church

Piles

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

Every other Tuesday, a wonderful woman named Heidi cleans my house. It’s magical. Here’s what happens: on Monday nights, in preparation for the cleaning, any item on a kitchen counter is swept into the closest drawer; piles on the kitchen table are stacked haphazardly on a chair and then the chair is pushed under the table; clothes and toys on the floor are stuffed in a nearby bin or closet; things that belong downstairs get set on the stairs (close enough) or tossed onto the landing; and then—then—Heidi comes and sanitizes my house for two hours. It’s the stuff of dreams.

Of course, when Heidi leaves, the piles and the junk come back out from hiding and accumulate once more upon my table and my counters and my floors.

But what happens when instead of sweeping actual piles of junk into closets, we sweep our problems and our pasts under the metaphorical rug? What happens when we stumble through our days struggling beneath the weight of the piles and the rug?

And what happens when we bring our piles to church?

Well, a lot of things happen. Gossip, slander, fear, shame, anger, and more. But what would happen if we would drag our piles to the foot of the cross and leave them there instead? What if we really trusted Jesus to do what he promised to do? Or, more accurately, what if we believed Jesus when he told us that he had already redeemed our piles? Here we are, lugging around our piles of junk, and Jesus has already offered to carry it for us. Is it stubbornness that keeps us from handing it over? Pride? Mistrust?

I think it’s probably that we lack an awareness of grace. We know grace but we don’t really experience grace. We’re told to put on a happy face and to make due under any circumstances, so we square our shoulders and we face the world head on. And when something happens, we sweep it under the run and we move on. The challenge is to trust Jesus with everything, including the piles under the rug, even if your pile has grown so big that it now requires a carpet remnant rather than a rug. Nothing is beyond the redemptive power of Christ. He alone can take what lies hidden in us and transform it into beauty and strength.

[Kristin vanEyk lives in Kentwood, MI, where she learns each day to pull back the rug just a little.]