When you don’t understand God–hold on!

Growing up was extraordinarily difficult. I had to do all that crazy learning, from how to speak to how to play with others to how to behave in public and so much more. I was full of mistakes and seemed to be doing my best at making the entire process as difficult as possible. I provided my parents with many stories, continually.

My parents kept telling me things that did not make sense at all. They weren’t bothered by my lack of understanding. They knew that if I just obeyed, things would work out better for me, and eventually it would make sense. I was not gifted in obedience. I was much better at disobedience. Disobedience came so much more naturally. The day came that I became an adult. Many of the things that they had said began to make sense, like bills, and so many other practical things that determine the way you made decisions, survive, and live life. They had an extremely bad habit of being right. Age brought me revelation.

I got married, and we began the process of our raising our own children. A lot more of the things my parents said to me made sense. I was the man in the middle. I could see my own past, being a child. I was a parent raising a child and could see from a parent’s point of view. I could also see my parents out in front still learning things that I would not understand until I got there. I realized that I had placed my parents on a pedestal as though they knew everything because I knew so little as a child. I could see that they were making it up as they went along, just as I was while parenting. Life is much more complex and amazing than I could have guessed or imagined. My parents weren’t perfect, but they were right about so much.

How much more is this like growing in a relationship with Jesus? He knows so much more than we do. He is so far ahead of where we are. Why should I assume that I will understand Him and what He wants and what He is doing and why He is doing it. He actually does know everything and is not hampered by the failures of humanity so common to me. When I don’t understand and just obey (as my parents expected/wished), life really does go so much better. To top it off, eventually understanding, or at least parts of it, does come. The understanding is the growing knowledge of the how and why what Jesus says works and works every time.

I can learn from experience of growing as a child and growing as a parent to work with my Heavenly Father better with more determined faithfulness than I did for my parents. I have golden opportunities before me every day to take as many of those opportunities as I can.

God’s wisdom and the wisdom He shares in scripture are so different from the world’s wisdom. The wisdom of giving versus taking, obedience to Him versus self-serving, giving to others instead of grabbing for one’s self, serving versus taking power over others, and so many other contrasts may not make sense at first. I may not understand, but I have the promise that someday I will. I can already see more than I did as a beginning Christian, enough to assure me that God is more than worthy of complete and total trust, even and especially when I don’t understand. My parents earned my trust, Jesus so much more so.

Peter didn’t understand what God was doing with the vision he had at Joppa. He was convinced God was telling him to do something against the very faith he was serving. Eventually, he realized that God was talking about people and that no race was better than any other. Even then, it took a while for Peter to understand completely. He had some ongoing problems. Paul had to bring it clear to him when Peter was showing preference to the Jews. Peter’s obedience when he didn’t understand was one of the main reasons that the door to salvation was opened to the rest of the world. Jesus has a better plan than our limitations can understand. We will always be children in His presence. He will always be the Good Father providing for us and leading us, even when we don’t understand.

**“And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.” ‭‭Acts‬ ‭10:13-16‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://www.bible.com/bible/59/act.10.13-16.esv