“When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 

1 Corinthians 2:1-2

There are just some things we are never going to know here on Earth.  There are some things we’ll never get answers to and some that we won’t even care to have answers to once we are in heaven.  Does that scare you?  I think that can either scare or comfort you- it does both for me.  If you’re anything like me, answers can make you feel safe, can make you feel like you are prepared… but we just can’t and don’t have all the answers to everything about God and our faith.  Our faith is the backbone to our relationship with Christ, we are believing something we’ve never seen with our own eyes, remember?  Our faith and the way God delivers his promises can help us be okay with not knowing it all.  

I once heard someone talk about how Paul the Apostle was very intelligent and accustomed to knowing things, but when you get in a relationship with God, you have to be okay with not knowing it all.  I imagine this was very difficult for Paul, who seemed to reason things out by facts, but even Paul concluded that “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”  1 Corinthians 2:2  While yes, it would be nice to have all the answers and to be able to combat anyones questions about the existence of God, but there are some things we just need to be okay with knowing nothing about, except that Jesus Christ is Lord- that we can be sure of.  

Can I be really honest for a moment?  I have a hard time understanding pain and suffering here on Earth.  That is one thing I definitely struggle with.  In our suffering and pain, we can bring glory to God.  In our pain and suffering, we rely on God’s strength, not our weakness to get us through.  In our pain and suffering we can experience what it is like for God to be with us and get us through something, but couldn’t he just take all of it away in the first place and then we wouldn’t need all of that?  Because God can do anything, why can’t he just remove pain and suffering altogether?  Because of sin.  Okay, can he just remove the sin from the world?  Free will.  Okay, can he remove free will? But if he removes free will, wouldn’t we all just be robots being controlled in every action and move we take?  And on and on and on.  We can get in a continued spiral of wondering why God allows or doesn’t allow certain things to happen.  We can get in a spiral of saying, okay, then what if this or that?  We could do this with anything in our lives.  You have to be okay with not knowing it all.  I’ll say it again, you have to be okay with not knowing it all.  Do you get that?  You are not god, you can’t know it all, you weren’t designed to know it all.  You have to be okay with not knowing it all.  

I imagine Paul had to get to this place of surrendering all his questioning and ability to know it all and just give it to God.  Think of the knowledge and wisdom that Paul poured into the Bible.  Think of the sacrifices he made to relay the message of God to all of us- all without knowing it all.  “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 1 Corin. 2:2  Paul then goes on to say “I came to you in my weakness with great fear and trembling.  My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” 1 Corin. 2:3-4 While we might not be able to know everything, we can trust that God is going to help us with everything.  Paul makes mention multiple times of his inability to do certain things, or the things he lacked.  “I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom”, “I resolved to know nothing”, “I came to you in my weakness with great fear and trembling”, “my message and preaching were not with wise or persuasive words”.  Paul came to us with human fragility, with human error.  Paul came to us, like us, but what was spoken and written wasn’t of Paul, but of God.  “With a demonstration of the Spirit’s power”.  Paul, being okay with knowing nothing was able to be okay with not knowing it all, because it was then that God was able to use him- to deposit the Spirit’s power in him.  Why?  “So that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power”.  Paul said it himself, he lacked the eloquence, he didn’t have the wisdom that he needed to display God’s goodness, but it is then that God’s power was able to show through. 

I like to think of this like our parent-child relationships.  There are just certain things that our kids can’t understand and won’t until they reach a certain age of maturity.  You may withhold certain things from your children and they become angry and upset, but you’re doing it for their own good.  Us not knowing it all is for our own good.  You can either have faith to believe that or you can have faith in nothing.  Both take faith, except one is more powerful than the other.  

Human wisdom can be a good thing, but when it comes to faith- human wisdom can get you in trouble, a constant battle.  Having to know every answer, understand how it is all possible can be detrimental to you having a relationship with God.  You can’t know it all- it’s impossible.  Questions will arise even when you think you have it all figured out.  It’s not for you to know; you are not God.  Instead of human wisdom, seek Godly wisdom and knowledge.  Seek God’s power in your weakness.  Seek him to give you comfort, even when you don’t understand.  Ask God to make you more like Paul, resolving to know nothing, except Jesus Christ.  His power is greater than your human wisdom, so stop trying to figure it all out and have faith.  Let His power be greater than your insecurities.  Let His power be demonstrated through your surrender.  Have faith, chosen one.