Living with Mystery

Living with Mystery 1 Corinthians 8:2 Mystery is one of the primary means God uses to invite us into a deeper understanding of his love. When we ask God for a miracle in our heart, marriage, home, school, generation, way of thinking, or anything else, he hears us clearly and coherently. When you ask for a miracle, God gives it to you, but most often it comes packaged as a mystery. Scripture reminds us that our adversary is the author of confusion. Mysteries are not intended to confuse. They are an invitation to look closely, maybe not at something new but rather at something that has been there all along and merely overlooked. We must learn to embrace the mystery without wavering in our confidence in God’s character. But mystery can be just plain scary to us. Annoyed by the dysfunction of mystery, we go around them to start again tomorrow. Our prayer lives can evolve into a passive-aggressive pattern as we seek control by knowing, predicting, and pretending to understand. When we are frightened and in need of a miracle some of us blame God; some ignore him; some try to be him. Inquire of anyone who has implemented these strategies—you will find none has been successful. We must become good at unlearning what we think we know and less skilled at knowing. Of the 125 unique teaching incidents of Jesus recorded in the Gospels, thirteen begin with statements and the rest start with questions. The primary methods Jesus employed in his teaching can be reduced to asking questions and telling stories (parables). God clothed truth and love and came to walk among us. His goal was not merely to teach us what to believe; he came to teach us how to believe. A follower of Jesus does not just believe what Jesus believes but how Jesus believes. As someone once said, “We do not memorize Jesus; we become like him.” One of the primary ways we become like him is to enter into one of his parables and live in the mystery where our circumstance, or our understanding of it, exposes where our heart truly is. In our valleys, Jesus summons us to peer into the mystery and there discover the miracle. What questions do your circumstances prompt you to ask about your understanding of God? Write them down, then ask God to reveal himself to you through these mysteries.