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As American’s we love things to be black and white. We may not want to admit it, but the phrase, “it’s just the way it is” can bring us a real sense of comfort. When things are that simple there is a certain amount of satisfaction we have.
It’s the ambiguous that often rubs us wrong. It’s the “gray” areas we don’t like. If we can’t fully understand something we get frustrated. Instead we like categories and systematics because it helps us feel like we understand. Not that this is bad, but it is interesting when you think about it.
Yesterday I taught on a passage of Scripture that is clear, yet provokes questions. It’s simple, yet serves as a catalyst for intellectual gymnastics. I taught on Ecclesiastes 3:1-15. Much of the passage can be summed up in verse 11b: “Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”
This passage articulates the fact that God has given us a certain amount of intellectual capacity to grasp the idea of “eternity.” But this capacity has limits…and intentional limits. The passage clearly states the purpose of our intellectual limitations: so that we will not fully understand. hhhhmmmmm?
Interesting, is it not?
Working with college-age people – who just so happen to be in a stage of life where they are trying to figure everything out – this can be helpful. College-age people often think they can solve debates that have been going on for thousands of years. It can be healthy for some thought to be put into looking into these things, for sure. But maybe we can also help them embrace the fact that they can never fully understand…because that’s the way God designed us.
In addition, maybe we can help them better by not trying to make everything SO simple. I’m all for understandable, but maybe we can also help them understand the fact that they won’t be able to understand EVERYTHING. Man, talk about going against every cultural bone in our body…
But this is Scripture, is it not? Scripture does give us insights into who God is, but this passage also let’s us know we’ll always fail to fully grasp how God works in our lives. Personally, I think when we try to make God so simple and understandable that college-age people shy away from the Church. When they grow up in the church learning everything as black and white and then enter the abstract world of the college-age years things change. What they learned as black and white all the sudden become gray. Maybe this passage can meet them where they are in that struggle to make sense of some of their thought processes…
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This is a big part of why I’m so in love with God…I don’t have him figured out (and I’m not require to know everything.) I’m always growing in my relationship with him, in Him, and with others. It’s an amazing life.
Phrases like, “In the beginning…” can hurt my head, and I find that so fascinating.
Good word, Mr. Bomar.