Today I began a new adventure. I had my first preparatory session that initiates an online Christian Education paraprofessional certification program that I enrolled in. In 1977, when I completed my postgraduate internship in Medical Technology, I’d said I’d never go back to school. Actually, I’ve had a lot of ongoing education since then- some required training for various jobs, other weekend seminars that I chose to take. But this is the first real “class” since that time. As I wrote in our family Christmas letter for 2005 “It just goes to show how God will change your mind and your heart when He calls you to a task for which He plans to prepare you. ”
Jill Carratini of Ravi Zacharias Ministries had written recently: (QUOTE)
“It strikes me as absolutely fascinating that again and again in the Scriptures we are confronted with men and women who, having come in contact with God, find themselves blown away by the notion that they didn’t know all that they didn’t know. Jacob had a dream in which God appeared above a great ladder introducing Himself to Jacob as the God of his ancestors. When Jacob awakes, his first words are filled with astonishment, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’ (Gen 28:16). Hagar, the maidservant of Sarah, had a similar reaction after she encountered God in the desert. Having run away from Sarah, Hagar was resting beside a spirng when God spoke to her and told her to return. Scripture imparts that she was amazed:’ ‘And she gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: You are the God who sees me’, for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me’ (Gen 16:13).
Christian philosopher Esther Lightcap Meek writes, ‘We labor under the misimpression that we see what we see, that seeing is believing, that either I see it or I don’t.’ Though we may not see God clearly, the Scriptures reveal that He makes Himself known to us again and again, in order that we might know Him. Whether in Jacob’s dream or Hagar’s distress, God seeks to be known and to make Himself known. ‘Oh, Lord,’ proclaims David, ‘for your servant’s sake and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness, in making known all these great things. There is none like you, O Lord, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.’ (1 Chron 17:19, ESV)
Carratini continues: “There is something vital in knowing that there is much that we do not know. It keeps us grounded in reality. It keeps us looking to the one who wills to be known. Says the Lord, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jere 33:3)
…When Job was confronted with the great thunder of 62 questions from God about the foundations of the world and the inner workings of life, Job realized that he had spoken out of turn. Confronting the reality of all that he did not know brought Job to a deeper certainty of God. “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you”(Job 42:5) (END OF QUOTE)
As I begin this endeavor I have the sense, too, that “there is something vital in knowing that there is much that I do not know.” But, thankfully, God has given me a sense that there is time enough to learn. I don’t feel so pressured. I can manage to function with what I do know now and trust that the other things that I need to know, He will bring to me either through this class or through other means.
When I prayed a prayer of surrender to the authority of the Bible in the spring of 1997 I said to God and myself: “I’m not sure what all this will mean for my life, but I choose to believe that the Bible is your holy, inerrant Word. I trust Your Holy Spirit to lead me into understanding it according to your timing and your will for my life.” I have a sense again of surrendering to God in this process. I’m not sure where it’s leading or what I’ll find when I get there. But I do believe that it is a means to an end and not an end in itself.