Good morning…
My mind returns to a segment of Scripture read to me over the phone by a friend. Sequestered in solidarity, let’s read these vibrant verses slowly aloud. You there. Me here. Us bonding together as we begin this new day.
God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That’s why we have this Scripture text:
No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this,
Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—
What God has arranged for those who love him.
But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you.
The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God planned all along. Who ever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God—except that he not only knows what he’s thinking, but he lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that he is giving us. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way (1 Corinthians 2:7-13, MSG).
A bit surprising to me, I have put down my books during this period of pandemic. Required to stop our face to face living room learning, God, why have I not felt drawn to organize a weekly Zoom meeting like many of my colleagues, staying tied to our syllabus without skipping a beat? Why just stop the semester? This has been a mystery to me.
Wisdom pulls me down to the interior of God’s purposes.
Our intimate, interactive classes are not about the book we are studying or the names of the women on our four rosters. Our classes are about listening to God together, learning directly from the Spirit in the presence of one another. To be honest, I am not content to flit around on the surface of a virtual connection. Stopping the old real rhythm to start a new real one, I feel invited by the Spirit to dive into the depths of God, bringing out what our LORD has planned all along. Fresh gifts of life and God’s saving solutions. Learning directly from our LORD, person-to-Person, the gifts we receive during this season of sequestering, we quietly pass along in firsthand, very personal ways.
What life lessons are you learning directly from God as we remain sheltered in place?
…Sue…
