December 2015

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O Lord, listen to my cry; give me the discerning mind you promised.
Psalm 119:169


Do I Know That Guy?

            "Tom Rifner!" my husband told me he'd called out down the counter of the auto parts store. The surprised, retirement-aged gentleman had turned toward him and confirmed, that yes, that was right. Now, this doesn't sound all that remarkable unless you know that the last time my sixty-four-year-old husband saw this guy was in grade school more than fifty years ago. Grade school! Just think of all the changes his former classmate's face must have gone through during that time. I mean, really! I haven't hit sixty yet, but looking in the mirror these days, I almost don't recognize my own face.

            My husband has always had a knack for facial recognition, but how in the world did he recognize that guy? That was over-the top crazy good, and I was impressed almost to the point of jealousy.

            Though my facial recognition skills have improved greatly since cataract surgery a few years back, they're nowhere near being that good. In fact, after cataract surgery, I saw some things I could have done without seeing--the cobwebs along the upper reaches of our ten-foot ceilings, the rust stain shaped like the state of Maine in the downstairs bathroom sink, the age spot that had blossomed beside my right eye since I'd last seen clearly. Especially that. "Ignorance is bliss," had never held more meaning for me. I wished for the powers of unseeing, of unknowing.

            We encounter this same type of thing in our walk with God. If we're sincere when we pray with the Psalmist, Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life (Psalm 139: 23-24, NLT), blemishes will be revealed to us that we might wish we hadn't seen, ugly things we wish we could unknow about ourselves. And once we know them, we're responsible for doing something about them, changing our thoughts and behaviors.

            "Be careful what you pray for; you might get it," I've heard it said, but who are we fooling with that approach? Certainly not God. Avoiding praying for certain things because they might be unpleasant for us to know is like the child who, when called by her mother to do something she'd rather not do, covers her face with her hands and thinks she can't be seen.

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I'm far away (Psalm 139: 1-2, NLT).

 [God] reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness, though he is surrounded by light (Daniel 2:22, NLT).

Is it better for us to remain ignorant of what comes as no surprise to God? What if, every time we asked God to reveal what we do that offends him, and he does, we then followed through and actually changed what he had revealed? Would it be like having cataracts removed? Would we see him more and more clearly each time?

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known (I Corinthians 13: 11-12, ESV).

Face to face. Imagine! Now there's a facial recognition I hope to be cataracts-removed, over-the-top, crazy good at. If I want to live my life looking forward to that day instead of dreading it, I have some praying to do. How about you?

 

Daye Phillippo

December 2015