Enjoy the Silence (repost)

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Enjoy the Silence

I spent some time in Genesis a while back. Corrected: I spent a long time in Genesis. My original intention was to read the Bible cover to cover, 3 years later, I was still in Genesis. I couldn't shake its depth and imagery. 

It's a profound book to say the least, if you read it correctly...
Eventually I did move on, but Leviticus was really only completed because I listened to most of it while driving. Pretty unimpressive, eh?

One of the many things I saw in those readings, is that beginning with Adam and Eve, and up to modern day, we as people really aren't all that different. While science and technology have certainly changed our views on many things, our natural tendencies to seek certain things, and respond to certain situations, is pretty much the same. Perhaps manifested differently, but basically it's the same product in a different package.

When I first started reading about the wandering Jews, I was appalled at their ingratitude. After all God had done, all of the miracles, the rescue from their oppressors, after all of that, they still harbored unbelief.

As I continued to read however, I began to wonder if I was really so different from the people I was reading about.

Would I have responded differently if I had been one of them?

Probably not.

When God was directly among His people, they took Him for granted. They became too comfortable with Him.

When God was distant (or so it seemed) they quickly forgot about Him. They looked elsewhere for their answers.

You really need to read it for yourself to get the full impact, but that's me in a nut shell to be sure.

I'm not sure why, but I thought about this tonight when once again, I was speaking to Jed about my continual addressing of certain issues in my writings.

Text Messages:

Jed: Not so much a matter of not growing. In fact, I would call it the opposite. Seems to me that just because the questions don't change doesn't mean we don't learn. Maybe it just means we aren't satisfied with simple answers. Maybe it means we want to go deeper.

Me: Perhaps asking the questions is enough. Maybe there is no clear answer so that we are forced to continue seeking?

Jed: I think that God is God and I am not. He's cool with us asking questions. But I think when we claim to know the answers, then we are in error.

Hmm...I had to think about this.

Perhaps, there are no clear answers to certain questions so that we are forced to continually re-evaluate our own certainties about how things should be...? or Perhaps asking certain questions, is actually the very point of them, and sometimes (maybe) the best answer we can receive is no apparent answer at all.

I know as a parent that a child will ask for what they think they want, but not always for what they need. Try arguing with a toddler about how tired they are when they want to stay up, or how they can't have candy because they need to eat real food. Oh, and good luck with that!

So, stay with me here...I was having coffee the other day with Shane. He's an intelligent, educated fellow as well. (Not as well as I, as well as Jed.) In our conversation I remarked that one of the many things I like about my friends, is their willingness not only to disagree with me, and to do so vocally, but their ability to do so by leading others to their own conclusions, gracefully and with thoughtful dialogue. This is, I feel, not only a mark of security and intelligence, although it certainly is that, it is also a kind of a testament to the power we find when we combine grace and humility.

Grace? Yes that's powerful, and so is humility, but combined they have the amazing potential to transform their recipients.

We talked about this as well, and I noted that some of the most amazing and impacting acts of grace are those that go unclaimed by those that bestow them. That is to say, blessing someone else in such a manner so that they are either unaware of it, or so that they must simply accept it for what it is, to give God the glory He deserves, because it was given in anonymity.

I reflected on that conversation in conjunction with tonight's, and concluded...This perhaps is one of the keys in understanding why certain prayers seem to go unanswered, and why certain questions seem to remain unanswered. These are usually difficult situations to comprehend, and handing us the answer isn't really the best solution, as much as leading us to the answer might be. This is perhaps a bestowal of God's grace, given to us without our knowing.

We are often, spiritual toddlers, and many times what we seek, is not what we actually need at all, but simply what gratifies, or pacifies us.

This is not the God I know. This is not the God of the Bible. He is not one who would simply give candy to us while we are starving.

So maybe the actual point of of these things, is  that we don't become complacent for Him being too close, or stray for Him for seeming too distant, but that no matter how close or distant we may feel that God is that we continually seek Him...always.

Just may be, the deafening silence of God, is exactly what we need to hear sometimes.

I don't really know, I'm just thinking.

d(-_-)b

PS Happy Birthday Dustin

Originally Posted: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 1:58am From my blog: http://phreshwater01.blogspot.com/2011/06/ssdd.html