Give me a solid, non-graphic mystery to read, and I’m happy. From my days of reading Encyclopedia Brown in first grade to the regency mysteries I love to curl up to these days, I have always enjoyed a good whodunnit. Yet, somehow, that doesn’t translate into life. I’m not a fan of life holding mystery. I much prefer certainty.
It’s why I calendar my days and keep lists of all I need to do. Of course, there is nothing wrong with these practices. But I’ve been on the journey of recognizing that I can easily slip out of staying on top of all that’s on my plate to trying to control every variable of life. The expanse between ‘preparedness’ and exerting ‘my plans’ onto the world is vast. I’m learning to make plans but hold them loosely, giving space for God to work.
And there’s such a constant tension in me as I set out to live this way because, admittedly, I think I prefer to be in control – I’d like to avoid the surprises and mysteries of life.
Surprise! God is a God of mystery. For all He has given us – Bibles, church traditions, people, hymns, books – there is much He has chosen to withhold. It’s actually what Isaiah alludes to when he reports what God has spoken:
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Friends, there will always be things we experience that we cannot explain. Life will take turns that we not only can’t control but will never really understand this side of heaven. Yet something in us wants to dive into the mysterious and solve it. We scour Scripture searching for reasons. We ask everyone in our small group if they can make sense of it. We cry out to the Lord over and over, pleading for insight.
But, the story God is writing is no Agatha Christie novel. His story is filled with plotlines that began long before our days and will continue well past our time here on earth. In other words, His ways are not our ways. Some enigmas are meant to be just that – mysteries whose meanings are hidden, yet full of wonder, because our God is a bit of a mystery Himself.
The God of Mystery
In our industrialized, highly educated twenty-first century, we pride ourselves on being able to explain and understand everything. And yet – despite the fact that we carry digital versions of every Bible translation and commentary ever written, we don’t know everything there is to know about God.
Isaiah, a prophet who knew God better than most, was clear –
Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord?
Isaiah 40:13-14 NLT
Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?
Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice?
Does he need instruction about what is good?
Did someone teach him what is right
or show him the path of justice?
Simply stated, we don’t know what God knows; therefore, we don’t know the best paths, the right answers. Only He does.
Paul takes it a step further, asking, “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” (Romans 11:34).
God is vast, beyond our ability to fathom and take-in. He’s like a wise parent who has set boundaries for a stubborn child. As such, there are times when God chooses to withhold from us – be it understanding or answered prayer. But it’s not out of meanness. Not because of narcissistic manipulation. But from a place of holy power and grace, of wisdom and love.
So when Scripture promises that God will not withhold any good thing from the righteous (Psalm 84:11), we can trust that whenever something is withheld either isn’t ‘good’ by our earthly standards1 – or our stories simply aren’t finished yet.
We Don’t Know!
Though my seminary days were complex, my New Testament professor taught us a simple phrase that has served me well these last 25+ years.
Picture a long-established, well-read biblical scholar standing before a room full of pastoral candidates explaining there will be times we get to a passage in Scripture that puzzles us because its meaning, at best, is hazy. Then she tells her students that in those moments we must embrace God’s mysteries and admit, as she throws her hands up with vigor, “We don’t know!”
What freedom comes in admitting we’ll never grasp every single thing God says or does!
To live out Isaiah’s message that God’s ways are higher than ours looks less like sticking our head in the sand and avoiding the difficult passages but more like leaning into them.2 Talking to the Lord about them. Sitting with their words and giving them a space to work in us – even if we don’t fully understand. Maybe the hardest part of this practice for me is to avoid passing judgment or to refrain from inserting my assumptions onto such passages. But, rather, to trust the Lord has a purpose in the words, whose meaning seem hidden to me. I invite Him to reveal what’s needed, when it’s needed, and simply let go of the need to know all His ways with certainty.
The same goes for seasons of suffering. Innately, we want reasons. We desire purposes for what we’re going through. Yet that’s not the message Jesus brought to us – He didn’t tell us to keep asking so that we’d understand everything about God’s mind and ways. Rather, He asked us to seek Him, then trust Him (Matthew 7:7-8; John 14:1).
Like us, the disciples demonstrated an inability to grasp God’s higher thoughts and ways, so on His last night with them, Jesus gave them the Way:
“‘Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.’
“‘No, we don’t know, Lord,’ Thomas said. ‘We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?’
Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!’”
John 17:1-7 NLT
The disciples didn’t get what Jesus was saying. It mystified them. Hear how Luke talks about the mysterious gap between what Jesus taught and how it was understood:
“The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.”
Luke 18:34
On one hand, we might read this as God blocking the disciples’ understanding, which can be true (Romans 11:25). However, often it’s our own assumptions, desires, and attitudes that become the blockades. In this particular case, Jesus had just told the disciples of His coming persecution and death – a completely opposite notion for Jewish men who looked for Messiah to be a conquering soldier. Their assumptions, and perhaps even their love for Jesus, kept them from wanting to believe His words could be true. So, the true meaning of Jesus’ words was hidden from them.
On this side of the cross, Jesus’ words in this scene are plain. Clear. But, at the time, it was a mystery to the Twelve – because the story wasn’t over yet. The same can be said for us.3 When we’re living the confusion of suffering or walking through a season of seeking answers or even making our way through huge disappointment, God’s ways can seem hidden from us. We don’t yet understand.
Sometimes, it’s only as we get past-it-a-ways that we can look back to see how God was at work. While other times, we never have the clarity – we just don’t know.4
In those times that God’s reasons remain ‘hidden’ to us, Jesus calls us to trust in the lofty, mysterious ways of our Almighty God simply because HE is trustworthy.
Living in the Hidden
Most days, knowing Jesus is all the clarity we need. Because we can know His holy, good character, we can accept and rest in the unknowable things of God. The disciples model that for us, as well.
Despite their inability to grasp all that Jesus spoke and taught while they walked the dusty roads with Him, the disciples didn’t give up on Him. Rather, they continued to follow Jesus with a deeply rooted trust because they knew His heart so well. This band of men didn’t just believe in Him; they believed Him. If they had distrusted their rabbi, they would have second guessed His motives and failed to fully follow. They would have, to their folly, put their hope and trust in themselves, thinking they knew better. (Hello, Judas.) If they had believed that Jesus was not out for their good, distrust would have undermined all the work Jesus was doing in and through them.
When the disciples wrestled with what Jesus spoke or asked of them, their faith in Him allowed them to immerse themselves in the ‘hidden’ with Him.5 They chose to embrace the mystery of this holy Man’s ways (John 6:68-69). They entrusted outcomes to Him and focused on their role, which was, simply, to trust and obey.
Dwelling with Wonder
Something happens within us as we choose to walk the hidden, mysterious path of God. Our awe of Him expands exponentially. At the same time that we choose to lay down our deep desires for clarity, the eyes of our hearts open to the wonder of His ways. The paradox of conceding to God’s holy concealment is that mystery awakens us. The answers that we sought fade in the light of His power and majesty. The control that we lay down gets overtaken by a faith that can tear down walls and overtake mountains.
As we live in the ‘hidden’, we dwell with wonder. We live with less fear of the unknown because we know the only One worth knowing. The mystery stops frustrating us because we recognize it as an invitation to enter God’s presence – hidden, sheltered, and well-loved.
That’s the beauty of choosing to live in the ‘hidden’ that is Jesus. His ways will surprise us. So, instead of striving for clarity at every turn, we can find the truest rest, the purest peace, and the greatest hope in the presence of the One who is, afterall, mysterious.
(Today’s prayer is simpler yet harder to say with earnestness. I invite you to enter a space of solitude and stillness so that you can be with the One who has prepared a place for you to be with Him. I invite you to recite the words offered here and to invoke the ones of your own heart. Enter into the mystery and wonder of the One we worship):
Spirit, You are welcome here today.
I’ll confess that I have a tendency to cling too tightly to my ways and to my limited line of sight, so I ask your help to loosen the grip that fear has a hold of. I invite You to open my heart and mind so that You have room to enlighten and awaken me to more of God – even when I don’t fully understand what He’s up to.
“Grief, you are welcome here today.
I’ll admit I don’t like the sound of you and it’s taken me a while to know and name your many faces. But you are my witness, my necessary companion, my expression of hidden losses that need to be expressed.
Mystery, you are welcome here today.
I’ll tell you the truth: I prefer certainty. I’m sure you hear that a lot. But your vibe is growing on me, the way you invite me deeper, hold my curiosities, and don’t talk much.”
Lord Jesus, You are welcome here today.
I’ll lay down my will for yours. I’ll release my need to know for the greater need of knowing You. In your name I pray, amen.
(adapted from Emily P Freeman, 11/21/23, Soul Minimalist Substack, “An Unconventional Gratitude”)
Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.
- 1 – This article expounds further on the Psalm 84:11 verse and how we might interpret what “good” means.
- 2 – Anglican pastor, Scot McKnight, has an awesome book that helps us learn how to lean into these hard passages rather than skipping over them, called Blue Parakeet.^ It’s one I need to read again!!
- 3 – Biblehub.com commentary on Luke 18:34, specifically Barnes’
- 4 – In the book Holy Unhappiness,^ there’s an entire chapter about the phenomenon that even if God gave us the answer to all our ‘whys,’ it would still not be enough to satisfy us or reconcile the level of suffering we’re experiencing. Most often, our ‘whys’ only hold us in the spiral of its grip, keeping us from moving forward toward wholeness and healing – with God.
- 5 – One of the many reasons I love The Chosen is because of the way they capture the absolute mystery that Jesus is to the disciples. I think I’ve walked this earth assuming they ‘got’ Him, were on the same page as Him, yet that is not what Scripture actually says! Jesus mystified them yet they chose to follow after Him anyway!
- On our Hidden Messages playlist, Amanda Cook’s song, “Heroes,” carries out this theme of trusting God in the middle of the mystery and in the muck of disappointment. The lyrics can become our prayer.
- In last week’s “Teacup Video,” I shared a bit of my ‘hidden’ story. You can find it on my Facebook Author Page and Instagram.
- In the early days of each month, I send out The Abiding Life Newsletter. If you’d like to start receiving my monthly newsletters, you can subscribe to it here — it’s my hope that it becomes a way for us to connect further on this faith journey we’re on.
Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is what aids us in our desire to become more Christlike.
- As we carry our rhythms stillness and solitude into this new year, we’ll be better aligned to hear from God, to be shaped by God, and to live the hidden life with God. This is a rhythm. Not a rule. Not even a routine. This is moving through life with a heart seeking the Lord, making space for Him to do His work in us. Here are some examples for how the rhythm of stillness and solitude might look:
- Taking Sunday afternoons to read His Word or journal or both.
- Walking every morning by yourself — no music, no podcast, just you and the Lord.
- Sitting in your favorite chair at some point everyday as you pray and listen and receive.
- Getting away for a 2-day personal retreat 2 or 3 times through the year.
There’s no special formula. No guilt if you miss a day. Just you desiring and finding time with God.
- Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s amazing grace with others! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light into the world!
Featured Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” photo by Sahand Babali on Unsplash.
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