In order to
get stories for a classic cars series I go to car show events that are held every
Friday night in local restaurant parking lots. I photograph the vehicles and
then go into the restaurant to track down the owners and get the information
about their car. One evening I approached a group of 20 car enthusiasts seated around
one long table. With pencil and tablet in hand I took down names and phone
numbers so I could later contact the owners and interview them about their cars.
I chatted with a couple of ladies and Helen, the elderly mother of one of the
woman, handed me her menu and said, “I’ll have the fish and chips.” We laughed and I understood how she mistook me for a waitress. Jesus asked his disciples, “Who
do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist;
others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Even today some people have trouble identifying Jesus,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matt 16:14,16 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----We know Jesus by information: information from the Bible and from history, including the history of our own lives and of the lives of people we know. There is a vast amount of information. And although it all relates to reality, a lot of information can appear contradictory to other information without sufficient knowledge of the particular information’s broader contexts. People work their ways into acquaintances with broader contexts through their interests and curiosities. But information itself does not necessarily abide only within well defined channels of its context. So people encounter much information outside their areas of particular interest, and out of curiosity, they try to assemble that information into completed concepts.
-----Maybe that idea is better expressed by an analogy of a bag full of jigsaw puzzle pieces, pieces that belong to a variety of different puzzles, but only a few pieces of each puzzle. Now, try to put a puzzle together. The humiliating thing about it is that this condition represents the most of what we know about life. Even though we grow up with the Bible, none of us have all its puzzle pieces in our bags. We all do have at least a few. And the more we have, the more intelligible a picture we can assemble from them. And considering the events of life, whether of the historical past or current events, the bagful of pieces and the variety of puzzles they represent are even more convoluted. It is no wonder opinions are so varied. It is no wonder people settle for holding opinions instead of seeking truths.
-----And that is another perspective on the difference between the called and the not-called, the humble and the arrogant. The called, aka the humble, understand that truth is not made of what they think. Reality makes truth. And therefore, they have to go seek reality to correctly know stuff, that is, to assemble the puzzle pieces like they were fashioned to fit. The not-called, aka the arrogant, fit pieces together according to what they themselves are, to what they’ve known from before, to what they’d like to know later. They have less or no interest in searching for what confirms the fit they make of the pieces unless that confirmation comes from their own objectives.
-----The difference between the called and the not-called, between the humble and the arrogant, is not completely stark, for all men are false while God is true. So our assembled puzzles are all down with some degree of muff-up. But called people have a penchant for checking their work against reality. They humbly adjust what they find incorrect. This eventually leads them to great pearls in the field, such as the Bible, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and sharper eyesight for spotting relevancies amongst bits of history, especially amongst the historical bits of their own lives.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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