I couldn’t resist sharing this thought above. I love it and it’s a great reminder every day that we live. There is far more about God that we don’t know, than what we think we know. That’s especially true when we add in the conundrum of how much of God we think we know about him that isn’t even true. We just think it is.
It’s from a book I recommended a couple of months ago, called Paradox Lost. The whole book is designed to help us settle into the reality that our Father in heaven could never be cataloged in a book and just about the time we think we’ve figure him out. It’s a book I know many of you will enjoy.
That’s why we will find more joy in following him as he reveals himself, rather than following concepts of him that often disappoint us. I had a friend who often referred to God as Jehovah Tsdnikki. You’d have to be an old King James reader to fully appreciate that moniker. The way he shows up unexpectedly and the things he does to touch our lives defy our imaginations. That’s why trying to follow a God that meets your expectations will be horribly frustrating. I know, I did it for decades and spent a lot of time wallowing in the anger of disappointment. And there I missed so much of what he was still doing around me.
Realizing God is so much more than we can sort out at any stage in this life can set us at rest from trying to do so. Fortunately we have a God who wants to reveal himself to us in the smallest bits every day. I find greater joy walking in what he has revealed about himself than frustrating over what I don’t yet understand. When I pray, “Father I want to know you as you really are,” I find he answers that in the things I most need to see in the circumstances I’m facing. That often comes in conversations with others who are seeing things about him I haven’t discovered yet.
Figuring him out is an adventure we’ll never complete in this lifetime and our awareness of that can create a humility that doesn’t try to force our view on others. And we’ll not sort it out here. I’m hoping eternity will last long enough to maybe get to the end of him there, if getting to an end is even possible in eternity.
I am of the opinion that even merely mathematically speaking it is foolish
and ludicrous to attempt to calculate the infiniteness of God. Let’s do an example.
Take a large number, lets’ a 100o and divide it by a number smaller than one, let’s
say 0.1. Essentially we are asking “how many dimes in a thousand dollars?”. As I
understand it there are 10 dimes for every dollar. So 10 dollars would yield 100 dimes,
a 100 dollars would yield 1000 dimes, 1000 dollars would yield 10 1000 dimes.
What’s the point you say. Well, let’s go with pennies. 1o dollars would yield 1000 pennies,
100 dollars, 10 000 pennies, 1000 dollars, 100 000 pennies and the like.
What’s the point you still ask. Patience please. If you take a calculator and keep dividing
the number 1 (dollar) by exceedingly smaller values, you get a larger and larger number.
Here’s my point.
If God is infinite and we are finite, then that essentially reduces us to zero, not in His eyes
but in comparison. Same thing with Satan, he is a created being so compared to God he is quantifiably nothing in comparison. Take your simple calculator, input one and divide by
the smallest number it will allow, let’s say o.oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo1.
Now press the equals sine. Up comes a great big E, error, memory overload. Likewise
when we use this analogy with God. We are sooooo puny (yet precious) we get a great
big E, error, memory overload.
In the days of the mechanical calculation machine it could be made to go no stop grinding
away for weeks until it went kaput trying to figure out something that could only yield
an E, error, memory overload. Likewise with God. His love is sooooo great for us and yet
relative to his intelligence, holiness, etc, etc, we are reduced to E, error, memory overload.
Why should He love me so?
Why should He love me so?
Why should He love me so?
Why should my Savior to Calvary go?
Why should He love me so?
see full song at http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/c/crystal_lewis/why_should_he_love_me_so.html
Paul from Winnipeg
Wow..that was great! Thanks..just love your prayer, Wayne. “Father I want to know you as you really are.” My husband and I like to read together and look forward to reading Paradox Lost. 🙂
What a great post Wayne! Thank you. Just last week the Lord showed me something as I was pondering perspective and disappointment. I saw that disappointment with God is a sign of my pride.
It reveals to me that I have put expectations on Him – which is not a bad thing in itself because faith expects that God will act. However where I get into trouble is expecting Him to act in my time frame or in a certain way. When that happens and I allow disappointment to settle in my heart what I am really saying is I know better! Amazing how God can change our perspective with one simple yet profound revelation. How I love this journey. Its been over 15 years ago now that you came to our home in Vermont to share with us. I will be forever thankful for your words of wisdom and encouragement then as I continue to be now. Thanks for being you(-:
Do you a book from your “shame” readings; eps the one you read on shame and the brain?
I’m not sure what you’re asking here, Pat… I’ve read a few clips from “The Soul of Shame” on the podcast…
It’s funny how we even limit eternity to have an end! Lol! I love it. It’s part of this marvellous adventure of faith that we keep discovering new things about Him that lead us to discovering new things about Him. Thanks, Wayne!
God is Love. Without knowing Him we cannot know (a measure of) His Love. His Love is made known throughout Scripture, then culminated in the offering up of His Son, His only begotten Son, as an offering once and for all time on behalf of fallen mankind.
I am of the opinion that the Canticles offers many insights into His Love. While much too deep to get into on a blog of this nature, a self study goes a looooong way in opening our eyes and heart to what a greater fullness of His character.
I love the scripture in Ephesians 3:18 which to me implies that while God is beyond knowing (fully) we may still experience Him! This word “know” is used only once in the NT, as follows:
1840 eksisxýō – properly, “strength at work,” such as overcoming difficulties in understanding (“getting past knowledge-gaps”). It is only used in Eph 3:18, referring to apprehending (decisively laying hold of) the fuller dimensions of knowing the Lord (His love, calling, presence). SEC
As well Romans 11:33 ” O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past (fully) finding out!”