December 21

Day 282: Profound and Inspirational

There is an observable shift happening this week, today even. It seems most everyone active on social media is transitioning away from trying to be profound, the last and final word on something. And are now trying to be profoundly inspirational.

Instead of drop the mic statements about government, social issues (maybe one and the same), Covid mitigation or vaccines, we're now seeing Advent Bible verses, cute kids in front of the tree, or invitations to sure-to-be inspiring Christmas Eve services.

We all want to be seen and regarded as profound. We all want to be valued by others as being inspirational. To be such, we have to be convinced we are already in possession of the 'last word' on whatever the subject.

You may ask, and you'd be right to do so, "Hey Mike, as you write stuff everyday, aren't you guilty of the same things?" Hope not. Probably so.

I read about Joseph in Genesis 40 this morning. He the favored son, former owner of a nice coat, sold into slavery. Now living in an Egyptian prison. He was a dreamer. And God gave him a unique ability to interpret dreams.

But Joseph knew a thing. "Do not all interpretations belong to God?" he asked, as his justification for asking to interpret the dreams of two fellow prisoners. Joseph knew that wisdom belonged to God, alone. Knowing the source, he nailed it with both dreams.

Solomon once wrote (in Proverbs) "It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out."

Later in life, Solomon wrote: "I applied my heart to seek and search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with."

Solomon, he wiser than even the three Christmas wise men, devoted a good chunk of his life to finding wisdom. And then infers that it is an unhappy business to do so.

If being wise seeks only to be profound. Or if being wise is short circuited by a desire to be inspirational, it is an unhappy business indeed.

It may be that wisdom is expressed in the continual searching, instead of the continual and already achieved profundity. It may be that wisdom directs the less wise to the true source of wisdom. Instead of directing the less wise to the self-proclaimed more wise.

If we cut to the chase, I'm suggesting this: It may be time for us to become searchers, instead of experts. Christmas is when we celebrate how God came to get us, because none of us got 'it.'

The (maybe) 3 wise men were wise enough to go and search for the new King of kings. And it may be time for us to be wise enough to search for the King of kings ourselves.

Unless, of course, we each view ourselves as being the king ourselves. We won't go looking for something if we think we already have it in hand.

It may be that being profound, and now being inspirational are only man-made evaluations. As such, those evaluations are temporary at best, and perhaps ultimately wrong.

Rather than continue in the unhappy business we busy ourselves with, maybe it's time instead to quietly search for the wisdom of God. Jesus, the wisdom of God.

And maybe leave the unhappy business of being profound and inspirational to others.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church Juneau