My wife, Jen, and I are fans of a good whodunit-type mystery. There is something fun about trying to stay one step ahead of the detectives in the book or TV show. I heard once that a good mystery gives you enough clues that you can figure it out on your own, even if they don’t tell you. That allows us to stay in the hunt as we go on the journey with the investigator.
In a mystery, it is good to keep the characters straight. This is easy for me because I do really well with faces. I am learning to get better with names, but I can see a face and remember it years later. My brother-in-law calls it “a super facial recognizer.” I am not sure if that is a thing, but he and I can have some fun with our abilities.
So Jen and I were watching one of these shows, and I thought I was doing rather well. I may not be Sherlock Holmes, but I felt like I was holding my own. Then in the last five minutes, they revealed some clues that were in plain sight all along. These clues were not small things, but I was blown away that I had missed them.
After we were done watching, I was reflecting on how, no matter how much we try, we can miss the obvious. Our brains are limited. Try as we might, we don’t always catch all of the information—information that we sometimes need. That is fine when we are enjoying a detective quest, but it can have much more serious consequences in our everyday lives.
This reminded me of the importance of trust and obedience to God. He does have all of the information. The famous verses are true: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5-6). If we are dependent on our own abilities to figure things out, our limits can leave us in a shaky position. But the psalmist says, “Those who trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abides forever” (Ps. 125:1). When we trust in God’s direction, we are secure, as if we were standing on a mountain.
Now I am not suggesting that we do not use our brains. Part of Jesus’ command to us is to love the Lord with our mind. I have embraced the nerd within. Study and learning are an important part of the journey of our love relationship with God. I am a passionate life-long learner. I would love to see more Christians pushing themselves in many areas of study. But the importance of learning only highlights, all the more, the importance of trust and radical obedience to the God, who knows more than we will ever learn. Where do you need to trust and obey today? {eoa}
Kevin Senapatiratne is head spiritual pyromaniac for Christ Connection. Kevin speaks around the United States, helping Christians find the fun of prayer. He is the author of Enjoying Prayer. You can learn more about his ministry at enjoyingprayer.com.
This article originally appeared at christconnection.cc.
