On the In

Mystery. 

Traditionally the word is used to describe something that no one can figure out. In the ancient Greek a mystery was some sort of rite that only initiates were admitted to. Exclusive.

I have been reading in Colossians and found that within six or seven verses at the end of chapter one and into chapter two the word “mystery” is used twice. The note on the word in my bible says, 

“Paul changes the meaning ( from it’s exclusive connotation) radically by always combining it with words such as “manifested”(Col 1:26), “made known”(Eph 1:9), “Bring to light” (Eph 3:9) and “revelation” (Rom 16:25). The Christian mystery is not secret knowledge for a few. It is a revelation of divine truths– once hidden but now openly proclaimed. 

Ephesians 1:9-12 is one that I particularly appreciate right now: 

“He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is , the heaven and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained a inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”

For those of you just tuning in, I recently graduated college and I am currently working at a job that ends in August (camp). After that my life is a blank slate. Well, let’s say, “my life is unknown”. 

The idea of a biblical mystery is a word phrasing that is not new to me. I grew up as the daughter of a theologian, so not a lot sounds unfamiliar. However, what is always new is when I will suddenly understand or connect wording, or concepts that I have heard my entire life and just passed over. 

I always considered “the mystery” of God to be that He was God and we will never understand Him. Isaiah 55:8-9 stuff, “His thoughts are not our thoughts” and all that. Not that this is not true, but upon closer inspection it appears that Paul’s use of the word is nearly sarcastic, because it is always used to describe the revelation or destruction of a mystery. 

In the past (pre-Jesus), a life with God was more exclusive, reserved for a particular people and communicated in a particular way. Jesus came and won victory for all people, not just the Jews, and opened the door to God. More so the Holy Spirit came and lived in us. God in us. So if we take the time to pay attention and listen then we can know the will of God in our lives. 

Please go back and re-read that paragraph (ignoring what is sure the errors you are almost certain to see). 

God’s “mystery” is out of the bag, but I keep wanting to live like He’s keeping it from me. 

I have previously liked the word “mystery” because it gave God power. Something that He holds over our heads to help maintain His God-ness. But that’s not God’s mystery. The part of God we don’t get is the part that is way too much for our heads to handle. If we knew all about God and every aspect of Him, our brains would explode. The part about God we don’t understand is not a mystery, its a faith-growing, brain saving Grace. The mystery of God is gone. 

So in my life I have no plan. I have a Bachelors degree, five grand worth of school debt, no car, and a terminal job. I feel like a pretty typical college graduate. But why be typical?

I do not have much power over the list above. That is my situation currently, it will not magically go away. I will remain typical on paper. But I am not bound to think “typically”. I am not bound by the pressures of my culture, my world. I do not have to think that way because I am in on the “mystery”. The “mystery” being, there are no more mysteries. Jesus blew them away.

Psalm 139 is a chapter that i have referenced countless times on this blog, specifically verse sixteen:

“Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were not one of them.”

God wrote my story, where I’ll go, what I’ll do, who I’ll be with. And if a God who created the billions of tiny details that has kept our very existence in functioning balance for thousands of years, took the time to write me a story, why should I worry about it if I don’t know the next step? Why should I worry about paying bills, or having a job, or where I’ll live? It’s not a mystery that I need to solve, its a story, a life, that I need to live, day by day. 

So once again, I end on essentially the same note, because it is one that I will probably spend the rest of my life learning: the god of the age is not my God, and the struggle of the quintessential college graduate is not my struggle. I am not sitting on a bench anxiously reading a Sherlock Holmes story, I am Sherlock Holmes, calmly waiting within the pages for Arthur Conan Doyle to tell me where to go next.

So I sit on the concrete porch of the lodge at camp watching the flags blow in the gentle morning breeze and enjoying the way the same breeze has raised the goose bumps on arms, chilled the end of my nose, made my chest contract and my shoulders roll in. The rarity of feeling cold in the Georgia summertime. 

In the next thirty minutes this porch will be filled with over seventy precious lives singing crazy songs and getting excited to embrace their coming day, whatever it holds because they trust in camp to give them a fantastic time. 

Faith like a child.

I am surrounded by children every day, so I should have a basic idea of what it looks like.

Children have very little big picture perspective. They are worried about the present moment.  “I’m tired”, “I hurt”, “I’m hungry” etc. As adults we get frustrated with that because in our minds, if you are tired, you are tired, drink some coffee and get to bed earlier. If you hurt, “walk it off”, if you are hungry, “lunch is in twenty minutes”. But these kids get up in faith that their day at camp will be amazing, they live where they are in the moment. 

If we get past the whining and the selfish nature, we can learn. Faith like a child isn’t just the example of a blind trust that their daddy will catch them when they jump off the side of the pool or that no matter what, mommy will come back and get them from school. Its a faith that the exact moment they are in has the potential to be the most important of their life. 

Another unplanned lesson from camp.