Trivia, the Universe, and Clay

Ask any close friend of mine and they will tell you I love trivia, and in fact I am possibly one of the most random people they know, because I am a fountain of useless knowledge. The last game of Trivial Pursuit™ I won was because I knew that the native bird of the Maori people was the Kiwi. Thank the movie “Whale Rider” for that one.

If I had the finances, I would probably be taking at least one college course at all times, simply because I love to learn. I soak knowledge up like a sponge, and I love finding out new things. Do you know who else loves knowledge? God does and while I have been called a “know-it-all” before, God really does know it all.

The Bible says that the God who made the universe has secret knowledge just for us, and he gives it when we seek him. (Jeremiah 33:2-3) The Message says He will tell us things we could never figure out on our own.

So how do we seek Him? Matthew 7:7 says ask, seek, and knock. Psalms 119:17-18 says open my eyes so I can see the miraculous things in your teachings.

Jesus gave the perfect example of this in Matthew 11:25-27 (T.M.)   “Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: ‘Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You've concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that's the way you like to work.’ Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. ‘The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor does the Father the way the Son. But I'm not keeping it to myself; I'm ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen.”

I grew up in church hearing the scripture from Isaiah that says God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours and for a long time I thought that we could not know what God was thinking. Oh, how glad I am that I was wrong.

His word says in John 1:1 that "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God." His word tells us what He is thinking. Jesus told us how God operates: that he wants to let ordinary people in on extraordinary things if we are willing to listen and learn line upon line.

A child in school typically is not doing long division in kindergarten. No, first the child must learn numbers, then they learn values, then they learn that you can add the value of a number to another number, next they learn subtraction. In higher grades a child learns multiplication, followed by division. This is learning line upon line.

We should be teachable: mold-able. He is the potter, we are the clay.  Do not fear that you will never really know what God wants for your life. Do not worry what the final product will be, but allow God to make you into what He originally designed you to be; this is called surrender.

Webster’s defines surrender this way: yield, give up control, relinquish.  

We know God has plans for us, so we need to know them too. Sit at the Master’s footstool and learn His ways, be teachable and surrender to the process of change. Read His word and seek Him. He will fill you until you are overflowing and then you will know what He wants you to do.

Be blessed and be a blessing. Remember that learn is a verb.