Inconceivable

Inconceivable

This is the word that comes to mind this morning as I think about God.  And in my mind it sounds just like this running bit from the movie The Princess Bride:

It also sounds like this verse from Corinthians:

As it is written:  “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him— (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Inconceivable.

I think this is why sometimes it seems like a poem or a song speaks better than a sermon, and why sometimes I think the scripture itself speaks more eloquently than my analysis or explanation of it. There is beauty and mystery about God that requires the eloquence of poetry and music, and maybe that's why some of the scriptures in the Bible are poetry and music.

In the same way, actions can also sometimes speak louder than words about the things of God.  Kindness and generosity can make the inconceivable conceivable as they demonstrate love that crosses boundaries and forgiveness that defies expectations.  The greatest example of this is Jesus’ death on the cross that demonstrates God’s love for us in the most dramatic way possible.

Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other;

let us show the truth by our actions. (1 John 3:19)

Actions do speak, and music and poetry speak eloquently.  Words sometimes seem so inadequate.  And yet at times nothing but words can make things clear.  There are many ways to say “I love you” but sometimes saying the actual words is necessary to fully convey the meaning behind the actions.   Would we fully understand what happened on the cross without the words of the Bible to explain it?

It seems inconceivable to me sometimes that God can work through the words in the Bible or the words of a sermon or a prayer to touch hearts so deeply, but he does.  Paul explains this in his letter to the Corinthians with these words:

These are the things revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:10)

This is why prayer is so vital. 

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. (1 Corinthians 2:13)

The things of God, the beauty and mystery of God, are inconceivable . . . and yet somehow conceivable as the Holy Spirit speaks to us.

May the Spirit speak to you today of the beauty and mystery of God.

Here are two pieces that speak that way to me.  What expresses the beauty and mystery of God for you?

 

Blindness and the Unseen

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

It amazes me…and maybe it shouldn’t, but it does…how easily we lose track of this truth from 2 Corinthians, that “what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal,” and become focused on the “seen,” the physical. We get bogged down in the issues of our bodies and the world around us, as if that which we cannot see does not exist. In reality, so much more is going on in the realm of the unseen than we can possibly fathom, but we forget how to use anything but our eyes.

Mine aren’t always my friends. They have often been the source of trouble and great expense because I am severely myopic and my glasses always cost a fortune. I’ve been blessed to have parents who graciously help me with this, and, although I hate being a burden on them at this age, I am extremely thankful for their help.

I once had what I thought might be a little prophecy, a glimpse of a future in which I could no longer see well enough to read charts and sheet music. I thought that maybe God was telling me to learn to memorize and play more by ear and feel, so that I wouldn’t have to stop playing altogether when I became blind. In reality, I’ve had issues reading music for years, and, although I know some of that is rustiness from lack of practice, I know that if I’d heeded the warning and worked more on memorizing, I would have, in the process, achieved the proficiency I’ve always wished I had. Now I seldom play because I’m too busy studying. My eyes are constantly fixed on the “seen” pages of books, websites, and emails, and distracted by the condition of my house, my clothes, etc. These are the things that drag me down and take my eyes off of God and the unseen. Thankfully, He doesn’t need me to be watching to do His work.

I learned recently that I am a visual/tactile learner. Now I joke with myself that the tactile will be especially handy when I go blind and have to learn Braille. Seriously, though, I think another kind of blindness is more my issue—spiritual blindness. Often I am totally oblivious to it, but sometimes it’s as vivid to me as the blind spots that come with my visual migraines. With a visual migraine, no matter how hard you try to see through the blind spot, you can’t. It moves when my eyes move, so it’s always covering the spot I’m trying to see. Similarly, in those times when I have a sense of spiritual blindness, I cannot see through the blind spot, and in both cases I have no choice but to relax and stop trying, and trust that, in time, the spot will clear and I’ll be able to see again. Meanwhile, I take some Advil in the hopes of avoiding the headache that often follows the visual migraine and find something to do that doesn’t require detailed vision.

Unfortunately, Advil does nothing to relieve the pain that sometimes comes when spiritual blindness clears. But I think prayer does. And praise. And thankfulness. A good dose of scripture couldn’t hurt either, because it reminds me that God is good. Reading the Bible also reminds me about how He works, and that He’s always there, even when I cannot see. In fact, it was reading the verse at the top today that reminded me that even obedient Christians sometimes need help remembering that there is more to life than what we can physically see with our eyes…like love and relationships, and Jesus.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

So What Exactly Is the Point?

Today’s reading in “My Utmost for His Highest” talks about how the core of Paul’s vision upon his conversion became the driving purpose of the rest of his life. I have had a tendency to miss the point of this, which Paul so eloquently summarized in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” The vision and the purpose weren’t a plan to go and do, but rather an understanding of how to be, a vision of the glorious joy of knowing Christ and telling people about him.

This got me thinking about my own vision. I still have a tendency to try to attach a plan to "go and do" to this vision, but setting that aside I can get to the core of what I have seen at those times when I have been nearest to God, and I imagine it’s not all that different from what Paul saw. One of the few times I have heard God very clearly, he said only two words to me. They were in answer to my constant prayers to understand what I should do with my life. His words were, “Love me.” Simple enough, and yet it took me a long time to really understand the import of them.

I have frequently told the story of how I came to be a radical follower of Jesus Christ; how after years of not allowing myself to deal with the pain of the time of crisis through which we were living, I finally, when faced with the powerful love of God in a deeply spirit-led worship situation, had to let it go and let him break through. Following this, I realized that although I had been in church every single week for all of my life, I had never really known God and had been missing out on the real blessings of being a Christian. I hadn't understood how much better it could be, and once I discovered that God was so much more than I ever imagined, I vowed to help others find what I had found.

It is difficult to explain to someone who has been coming to church every week for years, serving on various committees, volunteering diligently, that there is more, that knowing God in a deeper way is possible and incredibly worth the effort. I think they have to experience him that way themselves to really, truly understand, and ultimately the goal of ministry is getting them to seek to do that. Everything else about being a Christian is then the natural result of that relationship. Unfortunately it is so much easier to get people to buy into focusing on serving rather than seeking, and too often we allow ourselves to settle with lesser expectations rather than challenging people to go further.

What ultimately drew me to this point of seeking was seeing that deeper relationship at work in other people; seeing them be completely caught up in worship, and hearing about how deeply God was touching them. And in being so drawn, I opened up enough for the Holy Spirit to do his work in me. Our pastor Richard often talks about the mystery of God, and I think this is the crux of that. What exactly happened to me, and how and why, I cannot say, but I know it did, and it still does to people all over the world every day, and I pray that we will not settle for anything less.

And that’s the point. It’s the most simple thing in the world, and in a way the most complicated, but also the most wonderful. If in reading this you are saying, “I want this too,” then I pray you will have it, have Him. I know you will succeed, because the Bible promises, “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deuteronomy 4:29) With all your heart and with all your soul. Don’t settle for anything less.

Afterword
Having said all this, in looking back over it I realize I've not said anything about how knowing Christ beyond the surface-level understanding I had previously is to know of his deep and powerful love for us. Maybe ultimately that's really the point, because it is through experiencing that love that we are empowered to share God's love with others; allowing his love to compass our lives is to become vessels that overflow, that can't contain the wonder and strength of it, that give and give and give because we can do nothing else. Sadly, I have not allowed this in myself for quite some time. I have gone back to being afraid of the depth and strength and power of God's all encompassing, abiding love--afraid of the passion that it inspires in me. But I know that where God's love moves in, fear cannot remain, so as I seek to draw near to him more than I have for awhile, I know that fear will fade. Praise God.