Listless...but freed in knowing Christ
I admit that I have felt a bit listless the past day. I have been fever free now for well over 72 hours, but I lost my senses of taste and smell….and that was a symptom I didn’t really want showing up. The nature of this virus is so unknown that it’s difficult to know what to do and when. I did come out of total quarantine yesterday, but I basically moved to the basement and I’m wearing a mask around the house. My daughter today asked: “When are you going to be able to stop wearing that mask?” And my only answer was: “I don’t know.”
“I don’t know” is hard for me. I like to know things. I don’t like not knowing what to do. Maybe it’s having grown up watching G.I. Joe cartoons and the slogan “Knowing is half the battle” was drilled into my brain, but it is simply hard for me not to know and then to be able to take action in the midst of not knowing. Perhaps the Lord is teaching me something through this.
Perhaps my knowing is focused on the wrong object. Proverbs 9:10: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Or Psalm 111:10: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
Rather than seeking to know what I can’t know, the Lord is calling me to know Him better. I think of this song by Michael Card (yes, I’ve already had a song by him, but his stuff is good). It’s called “The Way of Wisdom” (video below) and there is line that says: “The way of understanding lies in not how much you know, where the pathway is a person that you’ve come to love and so, you can stop pretending that it all depends on you, for it’s not how much you love as much as how much He loves you.”
I can stop feeling like I have to know it all…I can stop pretending. What freedom! My wisdom, your wisdom, right now is to know Christ. To pursue Him. Isaiah 11:1, 2: There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
The Way of Wisdom starts out with a step of holy fear
And it makes its way alone by every good word that you hear
It has to do with passion and it has to do with pain
It has to do with One, Who has both died and rose again
Died and rose again
And the Way of Wisdom is living
The Path of Peace is forgiving
Behold the Man of Meaning
Behold, He is the Lord
The way of understanding lies in not how much you know
Where the pathway is a person that you've come to love and so
You can stop pretending that it all depends on you
For it's not how much you love as much as how much He loves you
How much He loves you
And the Way of Wisdom is living
The Path of Peace is forgiving
Behold the Man of Meaning
Behold, He is the Lord
The Way of Wisdom beckons us to find the end of fear that perfect love pursues
Wisdom did not come to simply speak the words of truth
He's the Word that makes us true
The Way of Wisdom starts out with a step of holy fear
That's only the beginning and there's much more that is clear
The path leads on to love and love is fearless in its ways
For Love Himself was not afraid
To die that we'd be saved
To die that we'd be saved
And the Way of Wisdom is living
The Path of Peace is forgiving
Behold the Man of Meaning
Behold, He is the Lord…
Behold, He is the Lord