“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”
Isaiah 55:8, NLT
I’ve read and heard and sermonized on these words more times than I can count. Beautiful words about God’s sovereignty. Clarifying words about why we so often miss what God is doing (or what He’s not doing). But in these words, I’m wondering if there’s something I’ve missed all these years. Is it possible God is saying that, as a consequence of our sinful rebellion (the Fall), we no longer have the ability to discern His thoughts as we once did? Have His ways since become out of reach of our imaginings? It makes me think of Paul’s words to the Ephesian church (Chapter 3); “. . . the love of Christ . . . too great to understand fully.” And, “God is able to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”
If all this wondering is true, it would partly explain why we are so frequently left in awe at God’s deeds in our lives, in the lives of others, in the beauty of nature, and more. And it would also help us see why we’re often frustrated at circumstances that don’t work out as we would desire, the healings that don’t come, the wars that won’t end, the relationships that aren’t repaired, the marriages that never happen, the babies that aren’t added to a family, etc. We’ve been marred, become imperfect, mortal, limited. He is perfect and His perfection should be, for us, a wide open and secure platform on which to live out our lives in His gift of Shalom. We would then arrive at a happy ‘comfortable,’ an easy acquiescence, regarding His leading, His choosing – in every domain of our lives.
I’ve just written what I’d like to be true of me. I must be what they call a work-in-progress. At least, I trust there’s still progress happening in my head, in my heart. I can feel like whooping and hollering at all the good stuff, all the celebration stuff. I hang back a lot more, though, when the answer is, ‘No’ or ‘not yet.’ I still want. I still whine. Not out loud, of course, but those thoughts can get pretty unruly in there.
It encourages me to think Jesus’ original band of disciples, having lived with and traveled with and listened to, Jesus, weren’t ‘there’ yet either. At the very end of Jesus’ time with them, they were still chomping at the bit to see what they expected to see. They weren’t able to hear Jesus with their hearts as their hearts were fixated on what their hearts wanted. Each pronouncement of Jesus that didn’t correspond with what they ‘knew,’ fell on deaf ears. (hoo boy, kinda close to home there, PD!) Even so, knowing all, Jesus re-confirms the commissioning he had given them, loving them into fuller commitment, entrusting them with a Gift, that beautiful third person of the Trinity, God’s Spirit. Looking forward to seeing all you shining, disciples tomorrow, 10 AM, 3 PM UK. PD
Don graduated from Regent University in 1988 and moved to France for seven years, coming back to the US briefly to marry Sue in 1990. The work in France included working in a Christian School and helping plant a church before returning in 1995. He’s been pastor of Peninsula Vineyard since 1999. He enjoys counseling, especially married couples, traveling back to France (with Sue), reading, doing Sudoku puzzles and sleuthing out good, dark chocolate. Don serves as the senior pastor of the Vineyard Church Peninsula, in Newport News, Virginia.