Can you fathom the mysteries of God?
Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do?
They are deeper than the depths below— what can you know? (Job 11:7-8)
God is a mystery to us. God lies beyond our ability to comprehend. We can only begin to imagine who God is and how God acts as we look to the Scriptures, as we look at the life of Jesus Christ and the activity of God’s Spirit through the community of faith.
Not only is God is mystery, but so is much of God’s creation. Perhaps not on the scale of majestic marvel, but there are many questions about creation that remain unanswered. And the sharpest minds throughout history and around the universe who have searched for answers all their lives come to conclude:
The more I know, the more I realize I know nothing.
Who said this, you ask? Was it Socrates? Maybe. Aristotle? Perhaps. Einstein? There’s a relative chance. The truth is we don’t know.
The best lesson I’ve learned over my years of service as a faith and mental health minister is that no plan, product, or program provides a sure remedy for recovery. No pill. No prayer. No form of therapy. No style of worship. People turn to me for answers on how to successfully navigate mental illness and I have none. I don’t have an answer. Only a testimony.
My testimony is this. Healing happens. Maybe not a physical cure, but certainly spiritual healing. And by this I mean much more than a positive-thinking false peace where there is no peace. I mean shalom, a rejuvenation of body, mind, and soul that comes not through anything we can do or avoid doing, but by the sheer grace of God. God’s grace is sufficient to restore us in such a way that we become wounded healers, broken vessels sealed by the Spirit, filled with the living water of Christ.
For too long “experts” have tried to give definitive answers as to why some people have disturbed minds. Some have said it is a sin problem. Others that is poor parenting. Still others dismiss it as an imaginary, just a bogus cry for attention.
Scientific advances now show that neurological imbalance creates conditions of mental illness. The search is on for psychotropic drugs that will alleviate the symptoms of conditions. Since genome mapping has come to reveal the make-up of our DNA, there is hope that one day soon such things a “gene therapy,” will remove such abnormalities and the world will be free of such delightfully disordered people as me. (Heaven Forbid!)
God looks on all these answers and laughs at his beloved and ignorant children. Just when we think we’ve found the answers to solve life’s problems, we discover we’ve only made things worse.
So what IS the answer?
That is THE question.
The fear [respect/awe] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)
