‘I don’t know’. What helpless words these are.

There are so many things we don’t know

• How many universes are there?
• How do you drive to Tierra Del Fuego Chile from NJ?
• What will be tomorrow’s lottery numbers?
• Where will I be in 10 years? 30 years?
• What is the solution to mathematics’ hardest unsolved problem: The Reimann Hypothesis?

Some things we don’t know because of limits of our intellect. Some things we don’t know because of limits of our tools and technology. Some things we don’t know because of our lack of experience. Some things we don’t know because we can’t see the future.

If we were to count up all the things we don’t know, we might be tempted to stay in bed under the covers! Reality check…   we don’t even really know what will happen in the next few minutes (yikes!). We might chalk our lives up to nothing more than just some grand shot in the dark.

Of course, this has impact on our faith lives as well. We expect that as we grow in knowledge, we will also grow in faith, hope, and love. We expect that FIRST, God will reveal to us some sort of knowledge and THEN we will react with greater courage and commitment. This expectation, as reasonable as it may appear to us, is not God’s preferred way of doing things.

God likes to say, “GO! And I will go with you”. God likes to say, “Don’t fear I will be with you”. God likes to say, “Trust me…   you of little faith”. God likes us to be ‘all-in’ not because we have the inside scoop on all the details, but because we trust God to lead us rightly and we trust God to bring us through safely.

After Jesus was raised from the dead and he was about to ascend into Heaven, his friends basically asked outright the biggest ‘I don’t know’ question of the Jewish faith:

⁶ So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8 NRSV)

They wanted to know if NOW was the time that God was fulfilling the ultimate promise (where the Kingdom of Israel is restored and perfected forever and forever with God). Jesus’ response is typical of God’s works and God’s ways: “It is not for you to know…   but you WILL receive power, and you will be my witnesses”.

The promise of the power of the Holy Spirit is better than knowledge. It is the assurance that God’s presence and power (the same power, by the way, that raised Jesus from the dead) will be alive and at work IN faithful people who are following Jesus. With that kind of power working in our lives we can confidently and courageously step forward into each new day no matter how filled it is with unknowns.