The Gathering Network: Kansas City

Yesterday I got an e-mail noting the fact that we hadn't blogged in awhile. It made me smile, because truthfully, you never know if anyone is reading this stuff or not. At least now I know ONE PERSON is reading ... or at least checking. :) And, I aim to please, so here we go.

I was actually struck last night (during missional community ... in the middle of gospel groups) at either a) God's ability to really harp on one thing during a given season, or b) my reticular activator. Whichever thing it is (probably a good bit of both, God did make reticular activators, after all), it is teaching me something.

I do things wrongly all the time. Like everybody, I get sideways and messed up and those wrong things become so ... everyday that I hardly notice them anymore. One of these recurring problems is this insatiable need desire to know what is next; to know how God plans on doing whatever it is that he's going to do with my life, or through my life.

But sometimes, on a good day, I realize that if he actually did that—if he actually were to lay it all out for me—it would totally kill the joy of the journey. Adventure, by definition, is a bold, usually risky undertaking of uncertain outcome.

The thing that I do wrongly all the time is this: I ask God the same thing that Thomas asks him in John 14. This is where we were last night in gospel group, John 14 where Jesus says, "Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.”

What cracks me up is the way Thomas responds, because it's totally the way I would respond. I can hear him, with that tone of Isn't this obvious? in his voice. He says, "No, we don’t know, Lord. We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

This is where Jesus responds with his famous, "I am the way, the truth, and the life ...."

It reminds me of something I read the other day in Don Miller's book Searching for God Knows What. He says: "Moses wrote Job before he wrote Genesis, most scholars agree, and so the first thing God wanted to communicate to mankind was that life is hard, and there is pain, great pain in life, and yet the answer to this pain, or the cure for this pain, is not given in explanation; rather, God offers to this pain, or this life experience, Himself. Not steps, not an understanding, not a philosophy, but Himself. ... And so from the beginning, from the very first story told in Scripture, God presents life, as it is, without escape, with only Himself to cling to."

It's exactly what Jesus says to Thomas. "Dude, you've got it all wrong. The way isn't a path, it's a person. It's not where you walk, it's with whom you walk. Stop asking where we're going to end up and just STAY WITH ME. It's not about where we end up, it's about our relationship ... the journey is just so that we can get to know each other better, so that you learn to trust me."

It worked for Job. In the end he said, "I don't need an answer to any question that I have asked. You are too great for me to fathom. I place my hand over my mouth."

God knows we want to know where we're going. God knows we don't like surprises sometimes. God knows we get very antsy when it seems like everything is falling apart and we have no instructions on putting it all back together. God knows all that—he does. He created us, so he knows. But he created us for himself, and we'd do well to remember that even if he did give us instructions, they wouldn't help. Because what we really need ... is him.