Faith Venture

Study is an important spiritual practice. Some of us are predisposed to study as a strength–or spiritual gift. I, for example, am an ENTP on the Myers-Briggs Types Indicator. Several other personality profiles I’ve taken also indicate a strong predisposition toward thinking and analysis. I wrote Wednesday about an analytical method for studying Scripture. That was one way I got into trouble as a student.

Just as some people are naturally predisposed toward study and analysis, others are predisposed toward enthusiastic praise. Praise worship services can be among the greatest experiences you can have. Too often, the two personality types clash.

There is something else to ponder. Mystery. Analytical types of people are prone to thinking they can (or do!) know all the answers simply by thinking and memorizing. I think Paul the apostle was originally that type. He seems to be exceptionally skilled at reasoning and arguing from texts.

Then he ran into mystery. Just who is this God? Just who is this Jesus? How is it possible that someone who was dead is now alive? Paul’s experience with Jesus shook him to the very core of his beliefs. For the rest of his life, he struggled to understand.

Take for example the middle of his letter to the Romans (chapters 10-11) where he struggles to understand the role of the Jewish people. They were the original mono-theists–people who believed in the One God. They were entrusted by God to proclaim His glory to the world. But they kept failing. Now they have rejected Jesus. They have almost killed Paul several times. Has God forsaken them? Are they now lost? Paul wants to know.

Then he writes, “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

After trying to understand by reasoning and analysis, he basically gives up and says it’s all a mystery. We just can’t know everything about God. We just have to accept the mystery. For some of us, it is humbling to admit we can’t know it all. That’s OK. Accept the mystery of God and live in it.

I deal in expectations and roles. I’m not big on lists of rules. That is a personal orientation that I’ve had all my life as far as I can remember. I also don’t believe in ordering people around, although there are times, hopefully rare, when you need to exercise command.

Now that our kids are grown, I seldom have much contact with families with young children. I spent last week with my grandkids–living in a hotel. Those experiences always heighten my awareness of young people and their parents. All of a sudden, I see these families everywhere. So I observe and reflect.

Then I remember how as a young parent myself, I was amazed at how some people had a long list of hard and fast rules about bringing up kids. I was actually learning on the job. I just had expectations and defined roles. I expected that my children would further their education in a field that interested them. I didn’t say it every day, but they felt it. And today they are doing just that. Otherwise, I tried to be consistent in discipline (with my wife) and consistent in love (although I’m not a very expressive person verbally).

Jesus had two simple rules of life–boiled down to love God and love your neighbor. That’s simple. Should be easy to understand. Should be simple to do–right? But humans like to apply brain power to define the terms and then figure out ways to get around them.

Parenting has just a few simple rules. Consistent discipline is one. Kids know the limits and can operate within them. Failure to consistently apply the limits confuses kids, and they wind up constantly trying to find them.

I observe a lot. I reflect on what I did wrong. I’m amazed–how easy it is to state a simple rule of life and how hard it is to follow it. How are you doing?