Yea, I know that!

Anyone with a teenager, could certainly point to a time, if not everyday, that their teenager feels they just know everything. Does that change?  As we age, often we feel like we know it all. Ever respond to someone with, “of course I know that.” Then immediately think, “Do I?” Surely we have all experienced moments in time when we felt overwhelmed or out of our league.  Presented with a new idea, belief, information, whatever the case, that made you go “huh, did not know that.”  You might sit back and think, “ you just don’t know what you don’t know.”  Now that seems like an obvious conclusion.  Of course we don’t know what we don’t know.  But think now how I started.  Often we think we know, but what is it we actually know?  

Let me throw out some scenarios.  Ever watched sports on television and think, I could announce better than them?  Ever hear someone speak on a topic and think “I know that, I could speak better on this topic.”  Go to a restaurant and think the service is not so great and think, “I could serve much better than them.”  Watch and actor, singer, entertainer and think, “that’s not so hard.”  Any sports fan at one point has probably said, “I could do that, especially for what they get paid.”  Now in some instances maybe you could.  But when put as a whole, we think we can do far more than reality might agree with.  Maybe we just say it in jest or out of frustration of the moment.  My point is, we just don’t know what we don’t know, but often think we know.  

Now ask, “do we take the time to know?”  Do we just continue to assume things?  Do we take the time to understand things?  In Matthew 18, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  We love to hear and speak of privileges and glory. We want to know what we don’t know and find the fastest, easiest path to attain it.    

Jesus was born and lived in complete humbleness.  Jesus tells us to humble ourselves.  Well that seems contradictory to what we are taught to believe.  Politics, business, entertainment, sports.  The competitive rise to the top feels anything but humble.  Top in your office, your field, your area, district, region, state, nation.  That desire and passion fuels and drives us.  We wait for affirmation.  In a meeting, from an outsider, a boss, associate, manager, “hey, you are the best.”  We want to know who is the greatest, hope its us, to create a feeling of accomplishment. But more so to know and affirm that we know we know what we know and we are the best at what we know!  

Probably feels I’m ragging on anyone that works to get ahead huh?  Not so.  

I say all that because this carries over into our spiritual lives.  For decades I felt I was good enough to go to heaven.  When the disciples asked Jesus, “who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,” they felt certain they already knew they were a part of the kingdom. Jesus then warns of pride and ambition.  Think you know what you don’t know? Then the kingdom you will not enter. 

I had never read God’s Word (least not the entire bible, I mean look how long it is!  The letters are so small and the pages so thin, yikes!), but I was pretty sure I knew the gist of it.  “I got it. Be good, nice, and don’t murder or something.  Plenty of people worse than me.”  Then I read God’s Word, the whole thing.  Then again, and again, and again.  All I could think is, “I didn’t know what I didn’t know.  I thought I knew it all, but I didn’t know anything.”  

I had to humble myself.  Humble myself to be a part of God’s kingdom; not the best in the kingdom.  Are you walking around like a teenager thinking you know all you need to know about Salvation?  Jesus says in Matthew 18:3, “become as little children.”  Like children, we come to God with no accomplishments and no achievements to offer or commend ourselves with.  We humble ourselves.  We seek not to be the best, but to humble ourselves to God, knowing we don’t know it all.  

I pray this finds you well and you seek God’s Word and it shines light over the unknown in your life.  The unknown you might think you know, but just don’t know…..yet.