Thought for Today
Psalm 2:1 Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain?
Psalm 10:13 Why do the wicked renounce God, and say in their hearts, "You will not call us to account"?
Matthew 6:28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,
Acts 5:3 "Ananias," Peter asked, "why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?
I woke up this morning in a “Why?” mood. Surely, I’m not the only one who has those days? There are those days when every word I read or hear, when everything I encounter elicits that question, “Why?”
In my childhood I probably began with simple (?) questions like, “Why is the sky blue?” Such questions generally were answered with “Because” or something like “Because that is the color of a sky!” When such simple (?) questions were about the various rules and regulations governing our home, the answer was often, “Because I said so!” That was the situation in the home in which I was raised; that was also the situation in the home in which my own children were raised. They had their own simple (?) questions answered far too often with, “Because I said so!”
Later, in school I learned about light, refraction, prisms and other aspects of our environment that affect the colors we perceive in our atmosphere and in the world around us. In what I now perceive as one of the greatest ironies in all Creation, the more I studied and learned about the world and the creatures who occupy our world, the more “Why” days I seem to have.
That simple (?) question of “Why?” has driven most of the mathematics, science and technology we enjoy today. Social scientists and politicians can and do argue at times that greed is a greater motivator. I believe the greatest motivator of discovery is “Why?” Curiosity may ‘kill the cat,’ but it also is a ‘burr under the saddle’ for many inquiring minds.
Of course, obviously, dealing with questions and issues of science, technology, engineering and mathematics is simple and easy. There are correct and incorrect answers. Even when dealing with the unknown, one can invent new tools like calculus to open up the seemingly impenetrable. The real challenge is dealing with people and aggregations of people. “Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain?”
The author of Romans sagely noted, “7:15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Most scholars attribute the Epistle to the Romans to the apostle Paul. If the psalmist and the apostle Paul could not understand people, is there any hope for an answer to “Why?”?
And, if we cannot answer the “Why?” about ourselves, how can we ever hope to comprehend anything about our Creator God? I can get bogged down in thinking about the first 6 or 7 words of the Bible, “Genesis 1:1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.” (Not all translations render the Hebrew and Greek participles using ‘when.’ Some omit ‘when.’ Thus, 6 or 7 words.)
Most of the adjectives we use to modify God, words like eternal, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent are pale attempts to capture even a portion of the true magnitude of the Creator of Creation. I still remember reading about Augustine in seminary. I ‘dumb down’ his thoughts in my own mind to, “Whatever you think is God is not God. God is greater than anything you can imagine!” Trying to fully understand God is trying to comprehend the incomprehensible. I do not have the intellectual tools to answer any of my own ‘Why?” questions about God.
I do have 3 things which help me. First, I have read John 3:16-17. Secondly, I have ‘met’ Jesus, the Son. And, third, I know the apocryphal story of the famous theologian Karl Barth. As the story is told, in an interview when he was asked how he knew the truth of all he wrote, he began to sing a hymn I learned in the Children’s Choir of Bethany Christian Church in Houston, Jesus Loves Me. That hymn still plays in my own mind on my own “Why?” days. I also remember that definition of faith, “Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” That’s enough for me.
Stay safe, hum Jesus Love Me often, trust God,
Pastor Ray