Monthly Archives: January 2013

Dumbing it Down

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After 5 weeks of living with young children, I’ve been again reminded that it takes special wisdom and expertise to communicate effectively with toddlers. Once instructions and warnings have been given, young parents repeatedly say, “Do you understand?”

Hans and Evelyn

A little person might look her daddy square in the eye and say, “Yes, Daddy.” But later, when behavior proves she didn’t get it after all, both parties get frustrated. Sometimes dumbing it down enough for little ones to understand is a tall order.

I know of one parent who does that with perfection: Father God. The main channel of his instruction and warning is his Word. Through that he communicates from a heart of love and because of that does a flawless job of dumbing it all down for us. But in the Bible he lets us know that we’re quite different than he is, and as a result, even dumbed-down information can be hard for us to absorb.

In 1 Corinthians Paul writes, “We know in part.”   Ain’t that the truth!

Our knowing-part is probably only 1% of what he actually tells us. As it is, we misinterpret passages of Scripture, reading it one way one year and flipping it the next. We also ask questions of our Father in prayer and end up trusting answers that turn out to be only what we wish he’d said to us.

The dilemma of not thoroughly understanding what God tells us seems not to have any solution. The problem is that we’re finite, flawed humans unable to understand an infinite, perfect Father, which is a dispiriting truth, in terms of communication. So, what can be done?

Just like a toddler who hears his daddy’s repeated instructions and eventually learns to understand, we, too, can get God’s drift better and better through his repetition. We might have to hear something over and over, but with enough patient listening, we gradually grow less dumb.

But it gets even better than that. Graciously our Father has let us know that one day he won’t have to dumb it down for us at all, because he will have transformed us into know-it-alls. Not that we’ll know everything about him personally, but we’ll be able to understand his Word and will know how to interpret it accurately.

All the scriptural debates and mysterious questions will suddenly have explanations, and even those of us who are theologically uneducated will know as much as highly esteemed biblical scholars.

Instructions and warnings

In the mean time, all of us who are trying to communicate with young children will just have to lovingly and patiently dumb it down for them, patterning ourselves after our loving and patient Father God who does the same for us.

“We are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him.” (1 John 3:2)

The Relief of Restful Days

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This morning my Spurgeon reading included a note about Nate and his experience. The reading began with a familiar verse from Matthew:

“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (11:28)

Spurgeon

I read Spurgeon’s commentary and then glanced at the notes in the margins, written in past years. A penned note said, “Nate [at the cottage] soul-searching, 1/14, 1/15, 1/16, 2005.”

I remember that weekend well. He was up to his nose in frustrations and had dropped to a low place emotionally. When he suggested he take a day or two away to think and pray, I heartily agreed and happily volunteered to handle the home front in his absence.

We both decided to fast throughout those 3 days, hoping God would somehow apply food sacrifices to our prayers about the weekend. My journal entries were a mass of requests about my husband and his struggles at that time, but there were also cries for good gifts to be given to him. For example, I prayed God would give him the rest he so badly needed.

When I’d opened Spurgeon’s reading on January 14, 2005, here’s what I’d found: “Jesus gives rest. It is so. Will you believe it? Will you put it to the test? Will you do so at once? Come to Jesus by…. trusting everything to him. If you thus come to him, the rest will be deep, safe, holy, and everlasting.”

Today when I re-read it (8 years later), it was the next sentence that impacted me most. Spurgeon wrote, “Jesus gives a rest which develops into heaven.” It’s an interesting framework for the Matthew promise, and Nate’s move into everlasting rest in 2009 was visible concurrence with that unusual statement.

When God delivered, he did it big-time. He said, “Come to me,” and Nate came. He said, “I’ll give you rest from your heavy-laden condition,” and Nate accepted.

On earth we can only observe backwards, but we can be sure beyond all doubt that in front of us lies relief and rest from every burden. Or, as Spurgeon put it, “Every heavy-laden one [will] cease from bowing down under the enormous pressure.”

Nate didn’t buckle during his remaining time on earth, and as he continued bearing the burdens he was handed (which included killer-cancer), he had no idea complete relief was fairly close at hand. Just a reminder to himself that this was true might have been a relief all by itself, which is something that should encourage the rest of us today still living in a world chock-full of burdens.

Nate kept his own journal on that weekend away, which included several prayers. In one of them he wrote, “Let me breathe the sweet, clean, pure air-of-life that You want for me.”

And not too much later, God did.

“You will fill me with joy in your presence.” (Psalm 16:11)

Slammed

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Bucket ListIn recent years, a popular trend for people my age has been to make a bucket list, an inventory of everything one hopes to do before dying. For example: travel to Paris, take piano lessons, conquer a fear of flying, learn a new language.

I don’t have a bucket list but do have the flip side of that, a mental record of all the things I hope not to do, things like trying to run through a plate glass window. Regretfully, I checked that off yesterday.

It wasn’t that I didn’t have a reason. I’d accidentally left my debit card sticking out of the ATM machine at the bank and 30 minutes later realized it. Racing back with the hope it would still be there, my heart sank when it wasn’t.

And that’s where the I-hope-not list got checked. Racing toward the glass double doors of the bank, I paid no attention to the recent remodeling that had made a set of double doors into one door and one panel of glass. When I bolted into the panel, it didn’t open even an an inch.

Immediately I got the chance to experience item #2 on the I-hope-not list: a split lip.

Come on in...

As soon as the stars cleared, I walked through the real door and into the bank, embarrassed by what had happened. But unbeknownst to me, my lip was dripping blood, and the teller’s face showed alarm. But she handed me my card without comment, so I smiled (ouch), and headed for the car’s visor-mirror (ugh).

Sometimes we rush through life at such break-neck speeds we don’t see what God is trying to show us. Maybe it’s a piece of guidance he wants to give or a new idea, possibly an important chiding or a practical interpretation of Scripture. If he considers it valuable enough and we still can’t see it, he might let us run right into it.

We may even end up with the spiritual version of a split lip, a blast of circumstances that hurts deeply. The reason behind them may not be visible, but being forced to endure them can be tantamount to a blast of unanticipated pain that shocks the system and leaves damage behind. But how can we prepare for what’s invisible?

We trust the One behind it.

Once we commit our lives to the Lord, whatever comes after that is part of his grand plan whether we see it coming or not. We can be sure we’ll encounter both the good and the bad, the honorable and dishonorable, split profits and split lips. The reality is, if it happens, we needed it.

Slammed...

My split lip is unsightly, but eventually it’ll heal and disappear. As a result of my I-hope-not experience, I’m fairly sure I’ll never miss “seeing” that invisible sheet of glass again, which is why a split lip can actually be a good thing.

But then again, I just might decide to stick with the bank’s drive-through.

“Though you have not seen him, you love him.” (1 Peter 1:8)