Was reading the book "God is Closer Than You Think" by John Ortberg yesterday and I came across this topic that's really interesting. Yes shepherd! I am reading and trying to grow myself too. Haha. The topic was on "The Good of Not Knowing". When I first read this, I did wonder to myself a bit. Like really? Hmmm.. It's rather interesting. I've heard that ignorance is a bliss but the bible did say that ignorance is not entirely a bliss (Pro12:15). So... how is Not Knowing something good then?
The Good of Not Knowing
George MacDonald worte a book about a pastor named Thomas Wingfold, who is troubled by doubt and his inability to know God is present. He decides to make his life an experiment in seeking simply to follow Jesus in spite of his doubts. At one point he is caring for a dying man who has come back to faith through his influence. "I wish I could come back after I die," the man tells Wingfold, "so you could be delivered from doubts and know for sure about the faith."
Then Wingfold says the words that have stayed with me ever since. "No - even if you could, I wouldn't want you to. I would not see him one moment before he thought best. I'd rather have the good of not knowing."
It had never occurred to me before that there might be a reason for uncertainty - a good of not knowing. I thought of this line again years later when my daughter came into my room. She had applied to college and was desperate to find out if she had gotten in to her top choice. It struck me, as we talked, that the "uncertainty period" was a unique opportunity for growth. If she were able to live with confidence and joy even when she did not yet know if she'd get what she hoped for, a kind of strength would be formed in her soul that would never get formed there if she found out the answer right away. There is a good of not knowing.
Imagine for a moment two football teams walking onto the field knowing ahead of time what the final score of the game is going to be. It would be very hard to get much adrenaline going. Not knowing doesn't mean you're condemned to anxiety; rather, not knowing calls for trust, and trust is crucial to good performance. Uncertainty is essential to the game.
Welcome to the human race. It is somehow essential to human life as God has ordained it that we can know the final score of yesterday but not tomorrow. It doesn't mean we're condemned to anxiety. It does mean this:
If you're looking for certainty, you've chosen the wrong species.
You can walk by faith, but not by sight; not down here.
Maybe this is why we must struggle with the not-knowing times of life. Thomas Merton once said that if you find God with great ease, perhaps it is not God that you've found.
Brother Lawrence himself said that when he first decided to pursue God's presence above all else, he was not very good at it. "It seemed that everything - even God (!) - was against me and that only faith was on my side." This sense of chronic failure lasted ten years. "When I finally reached the point where I expected the rest of my life to be very difficult, I suddenly found myself changed."
I guess God does have an interesting way of doing things. Reading this really reminded me of something that was taught to me before. To ask God for a miraculous experience would mean to ask God for a problem in your life. Just as no villian will mean no need for a hero, no problem will prove no need for a miracle. At the same time, the greatness of your problem determines how great the miracle shall be. So I guess uncertainty is one of those tools that God uses to grow us in trust - our trust in Him. :)
The Good of Not Knowing
George MacDonald worte a book about a pastor named Thomas Wingfold, who is troubled by doubt and his inability to know God is present. He decides to make his life an experiment in seeking simply to follow Jesus in spite of his doubts. At one point he is caring for a dying man who has come back to faith through his influence. "I wish I could come back after I die," the man tells Wingfold, "so you could be delivered from doubts and know for sure about the faith."
Then Wingfold says the words that have stayed with me ever since. "No - even if you could, I wouldn't want you to. I would not see him one moment before he thought best. I'd rather have the good of not knowing."
It had never occurred to me before that there might be a reason for uncertainty - a good of not knowing. I thought of this line again years later when my daughter came into my room. She had applied to college and was desperate to find out if she had gotten in to her top choice. It struck me, as we talked, that the "uncertainty period" was a unique opportunity for growth. If she were able to live with confidence and joy even when she did not yet know if she'd get what she hoped for, a kind of strength would be formed in her soul that would never get formed there if she found out the answer right away. There is a good of not knowing.
Imagine for a moment two football teams walking onto the field knowing ahead of time what the final score of the game is going to be. It would be very hard to get much adrenaline going. Not knowing doesn't mean you're condemned to anxiety; rather, not knowing calls for trust, and trust is crucial to good performance. Uncertainty is essential to the game.
Welcome to the human race. It is somehow essential to human life as God has ordained it that we can know the final score of yesterday but not tomorrow. It doesn't mean we're condemned to anxiety. It does mean this:
If you're looking for certainty, you've chosen the wrong species.
You can walk by faith, but not by sight; not down here.
Maybe this is why we must struggle with the not-knowing times of life. Thomas Merton once said that if you find God with great ease, perhaps it is not God that you've found.
Brother Lawrence himself said that when he first decided to pursue God's presence above all else, he was not very good at it. "It seemed that everything - even God (!) - was against me and that only faith was on my side." This sense of chronic failure lasted ten years. "When I finally reached the point where I expected the rest of my life to be very difficult, I suddenly found myself changed."
I guess God does have an interesting way of doing things. Reading this really reminded me of something that was taught to me before. To ask God for a miraculous experience would mean to ask God for a problem in your life. Just as no villian will mean no need for a hero, no problem will prove no need for a miracle. At the same time, the greatness of your problem determines how great the miracle shall be. So I guess uncertainty is one of those tools that God uses to grow us in trust - our trust in Him. :)
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