the mystery of God

so i'm supposed to speak tomorrow night on the mystery of God.

huh. how can i speak about something thats a mystery? i mean, seriously . . . . how do you talk about something that you are struggling to get your brain around?

but i think i've been approaching it all wrong.

how many times have we remarked that we don't know what God wants us to do? That we don't know our calling, what we should do with our lives, etc. . . . .

a dear friend told me something. "its not that we don't know what the right thing to do is. we do know. we just don't want to do it."

its not that we don't know what God wants us to do. in fact, we do know. we just don't want to do it. we want the specific direction. we want the laid out plans, the annual program, and the process that will take us where we are going. how often have i got caught up in trying to figure out what i'm supposed to do with my life. . . . i can't even begin to say often i think about that during the week.

i think its in our nature to not embrace mystery, though. we want to plan things out. figure out where we'll be in 4.5 years. what kind of job we'll have, who we'll be married to, how much money we'll be making, etc. its trusting that God will take care of things (see Matt. 6:25-34).

C.S. Lewis writes in Screwtape Letters about how getting caught up in the future will detract us from living for today. its not thinking about our future in heaven that creates problems, but dwelling on what will happen tomorrow, and the day after that. . . .instead of focusing on getting the most out of today. its okay to not know whats going to happen tomorrow, or the next day, or in they next year. but thats not our nature. thats definitely not my nature.

i'm a dreamer. i could sit and daydream about all the things i want to do. but in the daydreaming, i lose sight of what i could be doing today. today matters. does tomorrow matter? absolutely. but i can't do anything about it yet. so i have to make today count.

to embrace the mystery of God is to trust His plans(Jer. 29:11), and to live a life of worship.

but there is more to the mystery. He loves us. that he accepts us in our human, frail, and failed condition. that He redeems us. we did nothing to deserve this. but its there for us. all of us. ALL of us. we don't choose who is offered this salvation. and what does salvation mean anyways?(another topic for another time) i believe that Christ weeps for those that are living in pain and wants them to know that He loves them, regardless of whether or not they love Him back.

i don't pretend to understand all of this. thats why its called a mystery (hinthintnudgenudgewinkwink). but i'm starting to understand how to embrace that mystery. we embrace it in a desire to make today matter. in trust that God will provide all that we need. in faith that tomorrow will come, and will soon be today.

so i say to you, dear reader. . . .make today matter. . . allow the mystery of tomorrow to be there. trust in Him who promises to provide. for faith is to be sure of the things that we can't see. without mystery, where would faith be? we probably wouldn't need it(at least i think - i have to chew on that for a minute).

let me know if i'm making sense. i'm supposed to talk about this stuff.

be good to each other. look at Christ. cheers

m