WHAT I DO NOT KNOW

It's too bad for you that I didn't have this blog thirty or forty years ago.   Back then I knew everything.  True, I was a self-anointed know-it-all, but there was a part of me that was simply trying to help people get through life.  I thought I could help them.   I wanted to help others.  Sometimes I did. Sometimes I didn't.  As life has progressed, I have been faced with the reality that there are many, many things I do not know.  

 I DO NOT KNOW:

• ....the reason why the people who make the ketchup I buy insist on putting it in plastic  bottles that cannot be twisted open. 
• .....why some people do not feel guilty about getting on the "Fifteen Items Or Less" line at the supermarket with 900 items in their cart.
• ....why gas prices are $4.50 a gallon one week, and $1.99 a gallon one week later.
• ....God's purpose for chin hairs on post-menopausal women. 
• ....how you can love someone with real, deep love and they can walk away from you in an instant when you do - or don't do - what they want you to do or not do.
• ....how to explain to good and godly parents why they have endured the loss of a child.
• ....what is in another person's heart.
• ....why people are filled with such murderous hate toward others.

And this morning, I read the words God spoke to the prophet, Jeremiah.  Jeremiah didn't ASK to be God's prophet - He was TOLD he was God's prophet.  And because of this, the people hated and persecuted him.  

And so, in the middle of being held captive, and being mistreated by his own people, God speaks to Jeremiah and says, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."  (Jeremiah 33:3)

He DID NOT say to Jeremiah, "Call to me and I will answer all your questions about why I do what I do in your life."   No, God simply promised to tell Jeremiah WHAT HE DID NOT KNOW. 

I think sometimes, when I am in a valley season in life... I call to God.. because I believe He owes me an explanation for what He is allowing. 

But God is God and I am not.

And when I call to Him.... He will tell me what I do not know.
And maybe it isn't what I want to know.
It's always what I do not already know.

Maybe it's that I do not know.... HIM.

Maybe He reminds me of HIs vast and mighty power.

Maybe He fills me with His comfort that I have never known before.

And I pray that just like His promise to Jeremiah, His promise is to all of us:

IF we call to Him.

He will tell us what we do not know.  

And 

We do not know.......almost everything about God.

And whatever He tells me will be what I need to know.

And usually, I need to know... that He loves me and has not forgotten me.. and will not let go of me.... and will never leave me or forsake me. 

I call.

He answers.

And when He does, I know something I did not know before I called. 

Something He knows I need to know.