Just because you don't
understand the reason for something doesn't mean there isn't a reason at all. Rev. Matt Powell
I stole this quote straight off a blog from One Thousand Gifts author Ann Voskamp. And the day I read it it just, well, hit me! In the article she got it from (you can see now that us bloggers steal each other's stuff all the time) Rev. Powell was using today's quote as part of a teaching on commands that we don't understand because of the long standing traditions of ethics and morality behind them that we haven't either bothered to investigate or have come to a dead end on the investigation. (If you are interested in reading the blog from Rev Powell click here - and don't comment to me about the overall topic of the article, just read it and do what you will with it! I'm so not up for nor interested in debate of any sort.)
Growing up I am sure most of us heard our parents or other loved ones say things like, "Stop and look both ways before you cross the street", "Don't touch that burner", "No, you can't have a cookie before dinner", etc. And until we gained in some maturity both physically and in our reasoning skills I am sure that most of us, if not all of us, didn't understand the reason for these commands from people. But it didn't mean that those commands didn't have reason behind them, right? It just meant that we didn't know yet what the reason was. Now that may be a simple (too simple?) example to use in regards to today's quote but I think it serves the purpose well.
In regards to God let us look at today's quote. If you don't 1) believe in God, 2) like God, 3) believe God is good and think God is mean and hateful, 4) any other reason you can come up with to prove you aren't into God then okay, you might want to stop reading right about now because there's the potential I'm going to upset you. :) So continue reading at your own risk. There. Now you've been sufficiently warned.
In regards to God let us look at today's quote. God has laid out commands in the Bible, his Holy book, and some of those commands have ticked people off so they try to reason them away from their original context. You can reason them all you want in your own reasoning but that won't change what God actually meant by them. You can puzzle them and try to assign to God attributes that aren't his to own and you can try to wiggle around them but it still doesn't change the fact that God had a reason, and in my opinion a good one, to say what he did.
Just because I don't understand the reason for abstaining from sex until marriage doesn't mean there isn't a reason behind it. (Btw, that's just an example. I do get the reason but I'm unwilling today to touch any hotter topic than that!) Where we humans have issue is trust. We don't or can't or won't trust the person who utters the command. So because we don't trust we start picking and choosing what to adhere to. But it still doesn't change the fact that, in this instance, God has said what he has for a reason even if we don't understand the reason and may never understand it! Choosing to adhere to something without a reason rubs against the grain of our human nature. We believe we must have a reason, that we are owed a reason, to follow something. But the fact is that we won't always get to have total understanding about things and are we strong enough, courageous enough, to trust what has been set forth and follow it even while we may lack understanding in partial or full? Lose your entitlement issues (you are owed a reason - that's called entitlement) and choose trust. Choosing to trust doesn't mean you snub people who don't walk it the way you are, doesn't mean you look down your nose at people who won't adhere the way you are, is no excuse for treating anyone poorly and without value. Choosing to trust the command, without totally understanding it, means that you are doing some character building deep within and you are, in this instance, doing some relationship building as well.
Maybe I haven't spoken well today. Maybe my words got all jumbled and it's hard to make sense of this. Maybe you simply didn't want to hear it. Maybe it stings you as it did me when I took an honest look and realized that I pick and choose God's commands according to what makes sense to me. But it doesn't work that way. It really doesn't. And God's words that we don't understand? Study them - be courageous enough to truly investigate and be courageous enough to be challenged to change your mind/heart if need be.
I stole this quote straight off a blog from One Thousand Gifts author Ann Voskamp. And the day I read it it just, well, hit me! In the article she got it from (you can see now that us bloggers steal each other's stuff all the time) Rev. Powell was using today's quote as part of a teaching on commands that we don't understand because of the long standing traditions of ethics and morality behind them that we haven't either bothered to investigate or have come to a dead end on the investigation. (If you are interested in reading the blog from Rev Powell click here - and don't comment to me about the overall topic of the article, just read it and do what you will with it! I'm so not up for nor interested in debate of any sort.)
Growing up I am sure most of us heard our parents or other loved ones say things like, "Stop and look both ways before you cross the street", "Don't touch that burner", "No, you can't have a cookie before dinner", etc. And until we gained in some maturity both physically and in our reasoning skills I am sure that most of us, if not all of us, didn't understand the reason for these commands from people. But it didn't mean that those commands didn't have reason behind them, right? It just meant that we didn't know yet what the reason was. Now that may be a simple (too simple?) example to use in regards to today's quote but I think it serves the purpose well.
In regards to God let us look at today's quote. If you don't 1) believe in God, 2) like God, 3) believe God is good and think God is mean and hateful, 4) any other reason you can come up with to prove you aren't into God then okay, you might want to stop reading right about now because there's the potential I'm going to upset you. :) So continue reading at your own risk. There. Now you've been sufficiently warned.
In regards to God let us look at today's quote. God has laid out commands in the Bible, his Holy book, and some of those commands have ticked people off so they try to reason them away from their original context. You can reason them all you want in your own reasoning but that won't change what God actually meant by them. You can puzzle them and try to assign to God attributes that aren't his to own and you can try to wiggle around them but it still doesn't change the fact that God had a reason, and in my opinion a good one, to say what he did.
Just because I don't understand the reason for abstaining from sex until marriage doesn't mean there isn't a reason behind it. (Btw, that's just an example. I do get the reason but I'm unwilling today to touch any hotter topic than that!) Where we humans have issue is trust. We don't or can't or won't trust the person who utters the command. So because we don't trust we start picking and choosing what to adhere to. But it still doesn't change the fact that, in this instance, God has said what he has for a reason even if we don't understand the reason and may never understand it! Choosing to adhere to something without a reason rubs against the grain of our human nature. We believe we must have a reason, that we are owed a reason, to follow something. But the fact is that we won't always get to have total understanding about things and are we strong enough, courageous enough, to trust what has been set forth and follow it even while we may lack understanding in partial or full? Lose your entitlement issues (you are owed a reason - that's called entitlement) and choose trust. Choosing to trust doesn't mean you snub people who don't walk it the way you are, doesn't mean you look down your nose at people who won't adhere the way you are, is no excuse for treating anyone poorly and without value. Choosing to trust the command, without totally understanding it, means that you are doing some character building deep within and you are, in this instance, doing some relationship building as well.
Maybe I haven't spoken well today. Maybe my words got all jumbled and it's hard to make sense of this. Maybe you simply didn't want to hear it. Maybe it stings you as it did me when I took an honest look and realized that I pick and choose God's commands according to what makes sense to me. But it doesn't work that way. It really doesn't. And God's words that we don't understand? Study them - be courageous enough to truly investigate and be courageous enough to be challenged to change your mind/heart if need be.
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