One time a teenage student, speaking for her high-tech generation, argued against using mandatory rules of logic while solving a particular type of problem. “Oh, we have progressed far beyond having to do it that way.” No matter how far the student thought she had progressed, she couldn’t get the correct answer.
Surely God looks down on ‘progressing’ mankind and sees similar foolishness. As we boast about our expanding discovery of knowledge and the incredible speeds at which we can access information… and any other progressions we seem to be making, the Creator says, “I’m not impressed.”
“This is what the Lord declares: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
So who knows the Lord? It is a simpler question, but who knows you? Is it not the one you are often with? Intimacy requires time, communication, quest for understanding, and the involvement of our emotions. As we read the writings and examine the lives of saints of other generations, I’m afraid we are tempted to think like the naive teenager: “We have progressed far beyond that.” What substitutes for time in the Word… or hours in prayer… or fasting… or simply sitting at the feet of Jesus? This is not a dry defense of the spiritual disciplines, I’m asking why so few seem to echo the heart of the apostle who walked with God, yet wrote passionately: “I want to know Christ…” (see Phil 3)
Just as it is vital that children have wise parents and teachers to lead and instruct the immature, so Jesus knew we would need the greatest Teacher to lead and instruct us. Our challenge is to realize our need… which requires humility. God wants us to know that we can do much out of our own human wisdom and effort and resource (remember the tower of Babel?), but we can’t produce eternal fruit without his Holy Spirit. Who wants to exchange the temporal for the eternal?
“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (Jn 14:25-26)
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” (Jn 16:13-14)
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:5)
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (Jn 17:25-26)