I was chatting with a friend the other day who is writing a training course. They asked me an interesting question;
How do you write/share something when you know that you don’t have all the understanding yet, but you know you need to start sharing what you do know?
I’m not sure how helpful my answer was but the main thing I wanted to communicate is that if we devote our lives to following Jesus we enter into a lifetime of discovery.
To discover something is find something that was previously hidden or unknown to us. Discovery has some big implications for our lives. In one sense, when we discover something we can simply add it to the list of things/skills we already have e.g. I have discovered this new restaurant we must try. Easy. But often discoveries do more than serve as an addition to what we have and know. Sometimes the new discovery alters what we already thought we knew or changes how we do it. e.g. I have discovered this new restaurant and we will now no longer go to our old favourite restaurant. The new discovery has altered a pattern you had previously lived by. Now, just in case you are worried, restaurant discovery is not where I want our focus to be here!
A lifestyle of discovery will involve us not just finding out new things but will involve us setting down old things, and changing what we may have previously thought on a subject. This is the same when it comes to our faith, or our approach to God.
Acts chapter 10 in the Bible is a pretty pivotal moment for the early church and ultimately the world. Up until that point, Israel, the Jews, were Gods chosen people. They were set apart and they maintained a special relationship with Him. However in this chapter Peter has a vision from God which leads him into a situation where he discovers something that will alter how he ministers moving forward. And its a big shift.
The Jews were the only people in the Ancient Near East who had a God who wasn’t represented by an idol. They were one of the few people who had a living relationship with their God. They were also the only people group to believe in one God. Everyone else was called a Gentile. They were considered ungodly, unclean, and many of them served other gods.
Because of that previously Peter wouldn’t have entered a Gentiles home……but because God had spoken to him he was standing in one. If that wasn’t strange enough he was hearing them talk about God the way he did. But were they no longer the special people?
The next line caught me.
Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism Acts 10:34
Did you catch those three words?
I. NOW. REALISE.
I love this humility from Peter. This discovery has helped him realise that a previous position he had taken was no longer correct. A position that had been maintained for generations. Thankfully Peter was willing to listen and change his stance. We see his change confirmed in the next part.
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” Acts 10:44-47
Far too often we don’t exhibit the same humility as Peter. Our desire to be right, to have the upper hand, to lord it over someone else, often prevents us from this. So, we either end up holding on too tightly to an outdated belief, or we quietly change without any acknowledgement of the shift we’ve made. Neither one is particularly attractive.
I am learning to live with the realisation that the things I do, say, and decide today, whilst hopefully done with all integrity, may prove to be wrong tomorrow. I have to choose not to stubbornly defend those things, but also not regret doing what was (hopefully) the best choice I could make with all the knowledge and experience I had at that time.
God is infinite. The more we discover the less we know. Things we teach today ‘might’ not be what we think tomorrow. That has to be ok. We submit them humbly today and we can admit them humbly tomorrow if that proves to be the case. Lets be people who are not scared to say
I. NOW. REALISE.