believing or knowing?

Every other Thursday evening at Pearl Street Grill I spend a couple hours with three friends in a discussion revolving around each other’s life story. We’ve been on this discussion since the beginning of this year in which each individual takes a couple weeks to tell their story in its entirety. This past Thursday we discussed how we’d like our story to be told differently five years from now. In other words, what are some aspects of our character and current perspective that we’d prefer to be tweaked and re-aligned in the next five years? Interestingly, for all of us it came down to two things: Knowing God is good and a deeper knowledge of his love for us.

Another key chapter I recently read in The Shack gets at the heart of our longing in the following pivotal interaction between the characters of Mack and Jesus...

“Why do I do that?” asked Mack

“It is your desperate attempt to get some control over something you can’t. It is impossible for you to take power over the future because it isn’t even real, nor will it ever be real. You try and play God, imagining the evil that you fear becoming reality, and then you try and make plans and contingencies to avoid what you fear.”

“…So why do I have so much fear in my life?”

“Because you don’t believe. You don’t know that we love you. The person who lives by their fears will not find freedom in my love. I am not talking about rational fears regarding legitimate dangers, but imagined fears, and especially the projection of those into the future. To the degree that those fears have a place in your life, you neither believe I am good nor know deep in your heart that I love you. You sing about it; you talk about it, but you don’t know it.” (142)

Me and my Thursday night friends are learning that there's a difference between mere believing and a deeper knowing. 

We're finding it complicated because it seems belief and belonging are the characteristics that the church has conditioned us to become satisfied with. But I believe what the emerging church has been trying to express is that there's something more to the reality of both personal and global transformation... and that something more is worth investigation and deeper dialog. That something more is what Mack is drawn to confront.

When God is trying to say something to us, how good are we at listening? Is there something in scripture or something we’ve heard in church, or something we sense going on around us, through which God is speaking to us – and if so, are we open to it? Are we prepared to have our earlier ways of understanding things taken apart so that a new way of understanding can open up instead?

A sign that the answer may still be 'no' is if like the disciples in Mark 9:30-37 our primary concern continues to be our own status... what's in it for us... our self worth... our own sense of belonging. 

Are we willing to step out of that boat?

Comments

[Wes Roberts]

...ahhh

...but to step out of the boat means we need to know how to swim

...OR.....................

...we need to trust there truly is a hand to grab (attached to One who IS there) that we've been ignoring all along, in the boat or out

...exceptional post, Ryan, sincerely!!!

...extra eager to see you tomorrow!

[David Shepherd]

Dan. 3:17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

I think sometimes He asks us to step out of the boat knowing He is not only able but also willing to save us. But in the end, whether He does or not we are willing to give ourselves over to a larger story.

Mind you, far more easily said than lived. I pray my life eventually looks similar to these.

Good thoughts, Ryan.

[sam]

belief as poetry

[Ryan]

"...far more easier said than lived."
Exactly. It's far easier for me to throw a blog post together than to actually absorb what i wrote here.

Thanks Wes, David, and Sam (who needs to elaborate!) for adding to the discussion.

[Trevor]

We are living here right now. I find my perspective changes daily, or even more often. I fully trust God to lead us and "catch" us, then I don't, then I feel totally lost and don't know what to think. But in the midst of that I am drawn closer to God and I find he gives me a greater ability to trust him. I don't even necessarily think it will all be "fine," but I do trust him more. I view that trust as a gift, not something I create, and for us recently the gift has come as we have eagerly drawn near to God.

"Draw near to God and he will draw near to you."

That verse looks more tumultuous in life than it does on paper.