Mysteries

There are many things that I don’t understand, some mysteries that puzzle me. Such a phenomenon is nothing new and I am certain everyone is confronted by elements of the unexplained.

Even some of the wisest men who ever lived have been baffled by some things. The oracle Agur is quoted in Proverbs 30 saying:

18 "There are three things that are too amazing for me, four that I do not understand: 19 the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a snake on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden.

There are some things one can only look at and scratch your head and question.

One of the main mysteries of life for me is the way in which many people propose to determine God’s will.

In everyday living, God’s prescriptive will is fairly clearly laid out for us. Didactic passages, such as the Ten Commandments, make it pretty clear how we are to function in life in relation to God and one another. Other texts, such as the Great Commission passage in Matthew 28:18-20 and the Great Commandment of Mark 12:29-31, are reasonably clear as to the mandate of people who call themselves Christians or followers of Christ. So why is it that that which appears to be so blatantly clear is so often ignored by people who claim to be committed to serving God’s will?

But that isn’t the real mystery for me. The real mystery for me is how people who ignore God’s blatant and declared will, somehow feel they need and will receive some special revelation from God when making other less significant decisions. It seems that most of us want a Moses-like burning bush moment before pulling the trigger on a decision that God has in all likelihood empowered us to make in light of the knowledge He has already entrusted to us.

Maybe it’s just me but when I think about that, I can’t help but reason why anyone would believe that he or she would even be able to feel, recognize and discern some mysterious and special revelation from God about relatively insignificant things, when he or she can’t seem to get their heads around and their lives in line with the already clear and eternally important instructions He has given to us?