Receiving a call from man in a small yet growing and diverse North American city last Sunday night did not come as a surprise at all. But my conversation with the man at the other end of the line grew from interesting to exciting!
I'm still not at liberty to share any further, but yes, interest has turned to excitement! The thought of it gives me goosebumps, praying about it generates a greater sense of faith in God's providence! On Monday night before the basketball game, I found myself drawn once again to floor of the church's prayer room lifting the issue up to God. I've never prayed and even cried that long in months. When I came into the prayer room at 5:30PM, the bright orange sun ray made its way through the partially drawn up olive colored curtains drawing a beautiful orange line across the eastern wall of the room. I came out of the room to grab some food before the basketball game I have gotten hooked to watching, it was evening has set! I prayed all through dusk. Again, I have come to a point where I'm trying my best to sense and discern, and eventually undertake the will of God.
This morning, as I prepared to go to work I listened to Jack Graham's sermon on the Providence of God. As I stood in the shower trying to hear every word drowned out by the sound of water from the showerhead to the tile floor, I began to wonder about the hard realities of really trusting God. This afternoon before coming down for Bible study, I listened and read a sermon preached by a pastor-friend of mine at a church in Indiana where he asked a woman to share her story about her journey into fullly trusting God. Both the morning and afternoon sermons I heard speak of our own struggle with trusting God and His will.
I love the story of a seven-year-old girl who sat at the kitchen table with a blank piece of paper and a crayon. She begins to draw a picture, and her mother asks her what the picture would be about. "I am drawing a picture of God," she answered
"You can't do that. Nobody knows what God looks like because no one has ever seen God." The girl responds, "They will when I am finished."
I hope it were that simple to seek the likeness of God, that we could see all of God;s fullness and glory and wonder. If we could only used word to put into our minds a clear idea and definition of God. If we could just ex[lain who he is all wrapped in a neat package. But we can never fully describe God. We can never adequately picture God. Any pictures we could use, any words we could devise, would quickly be seen to be short of the mark.
For as long as human beings have lived on this planer, humankins has made an attempt to describe or explain. It cannot be done. We would never be allowed to handle capabilities that we cannot even approach it. We could bever be allowed to handle, control or manage God!
We are talking about mystery: the mystery of life, the mystery of God. Because of the nature of God, we live in the midst of mystery. Huston Smith, in his most recent book The Soul of Christianity, says, "We are born in mystery, we live in mystery, and we die in mystery." He goes on to say that we sometimes see mystery as a negative, because we don't like what we don't understand. But, he says,
It is not a dead mystery that bogs down in befuddlement. Religious mystery invites; it glows, lures, and excites, impelling us to enter its dazzling darkness ever more deeply.
I love the words "dazzling darkness."
In my own journey, mystery was very much distant from my thought for a long time. Yet the older I get, and the more I experience God's magnificent, unbelievable presence, the more I see how God acts in our lives always in unexpected ways and in unexpected times, the more I love the mystery of God.
If God is so hard to understand, if God is such a mystery, how do we learn about God? There are several ways. One way is through Scripture, which encapsulates the wisdom of the ages.
When you have experiences of His action, it helps you with the challenging task of trusting God. It is a challenging task, but we have good reason to trust God. It is a mystery, but it's a dazzling mystery, because God takes good care of us.
God is always at work on our behalf. We may not see or feel the presence of God, but it is there, touching your life and making a difference. Trust God, and God will be faithful in rewarding.
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