Counter Cultural Faith: "Embracing the Mystery of God"
Ecclesiastes 11:5 “Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.”
The author paints this incredible picture of the power of God in His infinite mystery. One of the qualities that makes God, God is the fact that God is a mystery. There is something that keeps us in complete awe of the majesty of God. Here the author uses these analogies to try to bring that to light and to help the reader to realize that some things will never be understood and that the movement of God is a mystery. We are told that there are things that we will not understand….period. God’s movement is a mystery and we cannot or will not understand it; we only have to trust it.
I live in an “enlightened” world; we have arrived. We’ve got the Internet; we do podcasts; we’ve taken all mystery out of life. We’ve got it figured out…..this is the attitude of my culture. In my enlightened world there is no room for us to admit that something is a mystery to us; because we are the human race and we have this whole thing figured out. Isn’t this the way it is; how dare God make a claim like this; maybe this was true in Ecclesiastes’ day; but not in 2008; we are much more advanced then back then….in fact, I think we have solved all the mystery which means that we are god. Isn’t this such a scary mind set, but yet it is a mind set that is pervasive all over the world. What would it mean to recast a way of life in post enlightenment culture that says, “I just don’t have it all figured out; I think that this is above my head and my humanness. I believe this is truth but yet it is a mystery and perhaps the reason it is truth is because it is a mystery and it is a mystery because it is truth.” Jesus is the glimpse we get of this mystery and it is Jesus that God pleads with us to trust in the mystery and to join in on this journey known as faith. Through this grace we are able to not have it all figured out and to still move forward; that’s the beauty of the invitation. Its not my job to figure it out, its just my job to trust and move forward being amazed at the work of God’s mystery in my life and the world.
Lord, forgive me today for thinking that I have to have this all figured out before I can begin this journey of faith; or for thinking that I’ve got to figure out the mystery before I can move in obedience. Give me the grace today to embrace you as mystery and to know that I can trust in a mystery even in the face of chaos or death. Amen!
God is a mystery and that’s ok.
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