October 21, 2002
CYBERCOLUMN:
Insight, blessing
___By Berry D. Simpson
___I like to learn new things. That is, I like to learn new things when learning is my own idea. I am slow to take on new projects, or new ways of thinking, if they are someone else's idea.
___However, living (growing) as a Christian means constantly learning new things. Paul Tournier wrote, "The knowledge of God is not a completed state, but a perpetual and difficult discovery." It's one of the ways God blesses us. As we walk with him, he slowly reveals more and more of himself to us, blessing us with insight and knowledge and understanding of his ways.
___There is a story in the Bible when Jesus asked his disciples to tell him who they thought he was. Peter, the most impulsive of the disciples, gave themost thoughtful answer. He blurted out, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." He got the answer exactly right.
Berry D. Simpson
___I don't think this was an answer Peter had been working on for days and days, a conclusion born after research and meditation. He wasn't that sort of person. I think when he heard Jesus ask the question, "Who do you think I am?" he just burst out with the answer. His understanding of who Jesus really was just burst into his mind all at once, and he couldn't contain himself any longer. He had to throw his hand in the air, wave it back and forth, and call out the answer.
___Jesus answered Peter, "Blessed are you, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven" (Matthew 16:17).
___ Isn't that an interesting response? Jesus said precisely that Peter didn't figure this out on his own reasoning, but God revealed it to him. Peter wasn't blessed because he was clever enough to decipher the puzzle, but blessed because he was open to the word from God and spiritually tuned to commit himself to God's insight. Peter was blessed because he put spiritual inquisitiveness above human understanding.
___I am always so proud of myself when I think I've had a breakthrough, when I've learned a spiritual truth or made a discovery. I would never say this out loud, but I am proud to be so clever.
___ Well, as it turns out, that is not the correct response. I should remember that any good ideas I have come straight from God and not from my research.
___ Most ideas just burst into my head as if from out of nowhere, just like they did for Peter. Maybe I'll be reading a book or writing in my journal or looking or listening to music, when suddenly my brain makes a connection and a new thought leaps forward.
___Of course, I would like for that to happen more often. However, if I could command the process to keep repeating, I would probably never really learn the lessons that come with the idea. God sends ideas just often enough to keep me inspired, but infrequent enough to give me time to digest what he says.
___I often wonder if there is a practical limit to how much we can learn about God. If we read our Bible through year after year, if we listen to sermon after sermon on the radio, if we immerse ourselves in Christian music and friends, will there come a time when we get caught up? Will we ever learn all we need to know?
___Is there a point of diminishing returns, so that each additional piece of knowledge about God makes less incremental change in how we live? I hope not. I hope the potential to learn about God is lifelong and infinitely deep. Mike Yaconelli wrote, "What gives my faith new life and energy is the experience of finding something new about God I didn't know yesterday." I agree—learning new ways of God is energizing.
___ The thing is, learning about God isn't so we can be smarter or more spiritual. It isn't about us. It isn't about me. God isn't a self-help program. The reason we are blessed when we learn something new is precisely because we have a bigger grasp of God himself. We are blessed to have more of God.
___ The funny thing is that God most often speaks to me inside my head through my own inner voice. He speaks his words using my voice inside my head.
___ It has occurred to me that maybe I am not hearing God at all but I am just going crazy hearing strange voices. However, people who hear strange voices don't have peace in their lives, and whenever I act on what God says, it comes with his peace. When God speaks, it is indeed a blessing.
___ Berry Simpson, a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland.
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