May 19
DebDay 66: Unsearchable
This weekend was shorts, tee shirts and flaps. Today is Carhartt's, a hoodie and XtraTuf's. A week ago the windows were open. Today the heat is on. The weather changed, faked us out.
God has faked us out the past many weeks. Several of us had Him figured out. Our theology was air tight. We'd read a couple of books on the attributes of God. We could explain Him and His ways to anyone asking.
Until recently.
Perhaps we find ourselves asking questions of (or to) God. Why did this pandemic have to happen? When will the 6 feet and 14 days go away? What do You want the Church to have repented of and learned? How should churches step into the new future?
Or at a more base level, a heart level...
How have You loved me in these past 2+ months?
Where have You been?
If You're God, why don't You do something?
We moderns don't do mystery well. We like systems and rational explanations. We want answers. (Maybe the younger of us better handle conundrum by not attempting to handle it at all.)
Mystery doesn't come with explanations. Or answers. By definition, mystery is "anything difficult or impossible to explain."
Pre-Christ people knew this. Job 5:9 says, "Who does great things and unsearchable marvelous things without number." Isaiah said, "...His understanding is unsearchable."
Post-Christ people knew this. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 11:33, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable are his ways!"
In Ephesians 3:8, he writes, "...the grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."
See the thread? God is unsearchable. God can be found in Jesus, seen in His Word, through the Spirit. God can be known. He wants us to know Him.
But God cannot be figured out. God's purposes and ways cannot be deduced to easy explanations or tight formulas.
At the turn of the prior century, academics couldn't explain God, so they tried to eliminate HIm. This was called "Higher Criticism." They weren't of a mind to accept the mystery of a Being greater than themselves.
We want answers, resolution to our difficult circumstances and impossible situations. While we want a response from God on our terms, terms we can understand, He offers us something so much better.
Himself.
Hebrews 1:3 tells us, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."
We sometimes think that when we finally reach our eternal home, we'll be given all the answers. I doubt that.
Instead, we will be in constant communion with the One who holds all the answers.
He is and will be the answer. And we'll be more than good with that!
-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau
