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| D.C., on the East coast, at night. |
There is so much I don't know. I was in my early twenties when a dentist told me brushing my teeth too hard had led to gum recession and the cavity like pain I was experiencing.
A friend of mine, who is very intelligent, was in her second year of college when she realized that Washington D.C. was not in the state of Washington - she just hadn't thought about it.
There is so much we don't know. The western world lived for thousands of years thinking the earth was the center of the universe, as well as flat. People were even killed our kicked out of their communities for questioning such assumptions.
We all admit we hold beliefs that are probably not true; the problem is, we don't know which ones they are!
These thoughts add so much color to a passage from the end of the "Love chapter" in 1 Corinthians 13 - the one you have heard at 99% of the weddings you have been to.
The author writes: "For we know only in part...for now we see in a mirror dimly, but some day we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I am fully known."This passage is so powerful. We are constantly arguing over what we know - pinning our understanding of science, religion, politics, ethics against one another, all the while running around in differing states of ignorance.
In my state of perpetual ignorance, I take great comfort in believing that it is not about how much I know, but that I am fully known.
8 comments:
Thank you, dear friend.
You are most welcome :)
if only we could figure out what it is we believe that's wrong...
A valiant effort with many rewards that in the end is futile....at least that's what Qoheleth would say...
Yes, fully known by the only one who can possibly fully know anything.
Daily we stake claims on embarrassingly limited knowledge.
I like your line "daily staking claims on embarrassingly limited knowledge"
As someone finishing a degree in theology, I can tell you that I am the prime example of someone constantly confronting others' assertions with my own. Though I wouldn't say that "I know", but its always worldview against worldview.
But has humans, we love pretending we're objective.
It would seem that this is part of the center of the gospel: That I do not know, but that I am known. Our hope is not in the theological structures or philosophical assumptions that we make, but rather, by simply being justified.
Well said, and by justified you mean? Right standing with God? I know you go to a Lutheran school so you have lots to say on this :)
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