Friday, November 20, 2009

Bad Dates

Hey guys. Sorry I've been AWOL. I've got most of a devo finished, I've just been super sick for the last few days. I'll get the new one up soon, I promise.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

You Don't Know Jake

I have 3 followers! This post is hereby dedicated to Ric McBath, Aaron Nelson, and Shane Latham. Thanks for humoring me, Jesus will reward you heavily one day.

So let's jump back to my education. Yes, I know, still in school. 5.5 years now. This is in fact my 11th semester of undergraduate work. Just to give a little perspective, my friend Sheila Smesrud and I started college the exact same semester...she'll be getting a doctorate in May, just a few months after I pick up my first Bachelor's. It's okay to laugh, really.

Anyway, I'm in a psychology class right now. On the off chance that anyone from that class ever reads this, understand that I have the utmost respect for the field of psychology and am actually enjoying the class a lot. That being said, I often find myself in an interesting predicament in my psychology class. I get annoyed with the theories being presented. No joke, it has actually been proposed by "experts" that people are genetically programmed to cheat on their spouses because they have an instinct to spread their genes as much as possible.

What I've learned in this class more than anything is that I do not like people trying to, "figure me out." I don't like being reduced to a theory, or being defined by a series of behaviors. Call me romantic, but I just prefer to believe that there's more to people than patterns.

Of course being a fairly hypocritical person, it wasn't too long before I realized that I do the very same thing all the time! As I've shifted my education more and more to Biblical Studies, I've slowly begun to view God as something to figure out. Rather than being the infinite creator of my world, he's the theory that keeps me motivated, and he's the force that I might just figure out if I tweak my theology enough. I've got to wonder, if I get annoyed at people trying to decipher me and reduce me to a theory, how must God feel being constantly debated and reduced to theology?

There is this beautiful and epic scene in the Old Testament. It's at the end of a book called Job, a book that is actually one long epic poem in the original Hebrew language. There's a lot to it, but I'll just give you the broad strokes; Job has had a really bad day. Really bad. And he's been trying to figure it out, trying to figure out why God would let that happen. He's actually gone so far as to demand that someone explain it to him, and amazingly enough, God shows up! Trust me, I read a lot of books, watch a lot of movies, and I'm telling you, there are very few scenes in all of literature as beautiful or epic as this. God confronts Job, and tells it like it is.

The incredible thing about all of this scene is that God never gives Job the explanation he's been waiting for! He never once bothers to say, "Job, funny thing, this was all Satan, and I'm here to fix it!" He never says, "Job, everything gets better after you suffer, this was making you a better person!" He just shows himself to Job, and says, "I'm God. You're not. Trust me."

Job's response is equally epic. He says, "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand; things too wonderful for me to know!" - Job 42:3

There's a point where I really just wish that all the psychologists and theorists in the world would just let Jake be Jake. I wish they'd just accept that maybe there's no deeper reason for my behavior than, "It seemed like a good idea," or, "I like comic books." (Two really big reasons why I do everything.) I get the feeling that God feels the same way. I'm paying a lot to learn about him, I'm not saying we shouldn't learn everything we can, but there's a point where we have to accept that God is beyond our understanding. He's just too big!

Eternity; think it over. Go on, try it. I'll be here when you come back.

Scary, huh? That's God. That's all you need to know. That's all we get. And you know what? I've begun to accept that. I didn't always; I still don't always. I have trouble with it. I want to understand, and I want to get my ministry down to a science. I want to be able to tell people that there are certain things that always work, and that no matter what the following 3 points will always be right. (Church of Christ joke.) But that's not how it is. God is just too big and too hard to figure out. But what that does mean is that even though everything else seems shaky, even though it's nearly impossible to find any solid truth in this world, one thing will always be true; God is big, God is strong, and God loves us.

Chill out. Take it from someone who's learning this the hard way. Life is way too short to try and understand. Just do your best, follow God, and trust me when I say that he's got it figured out.

(jake)