Wednesday, April 6, 2011

How Sharp Are My Questions?


Are we working too hard because our axe is dull? If we have the understanding to sharpen our axe, our work is made easier. That is, of course, our work includes cutting down trees. My axe might be equated with my questions. I learn more and I’m able to apply what I learn, if I’m asking relevant questions.

If a scene plays out before us, but the lens of the camera is zoomed in too close we might see a tough-looking boy shove a pretty little girl down on harsh concrete and cause her to drop her ice cream or teddy bear; skin her knees and dirty her dress, perhaps even break her arm if he falls on top of her.

When we zoom back and see the scene unfold in context, we might see that he wasn’t being mean at all. Rather, he was shoving her out of the way of an oncoming truck she failed to pay attention to. In reality, what could have looked like he was being rough and mean to her, can actually be his attempt to save her life.

Without pulling back on the lens, we might become angry and unfairly accuse the boy of wrong doing or seek to punish him. Our anger or grief might blind us to the possibility that there was something else happening, that what we perceived as reality, though it was real, was not the complete picture.

Do you think perhaps we sometimes accuse God of dealing with us unfairly? Do we sometimes get angry at Him for allowing unnecessary roughness?

1 Corinthians 13:8-12 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.



3 comments:

  1. What great examples. Pulling back to get a better picture of what is truly happening is good advice.
    Trusting when not knowing the reasons is hard but trusting in the person of God is what we hang onto.

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  2. God Almighty can take the most difficult of circumstances and use them to teach us something; to make us stronger; to work to our own good. He's pretty awesome that way!

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  3. We often misunderstand what God is doing in our lives. Perspective is everything. Good observations, Helen.
    denisemillerholmes.blogspot.com

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