Mark 4:33, 34
Ever bought a house? This week I bought a condo here in Nashville. I’m excited about it, but there is more work in buying a condo/house than I remember or knew. (I bought a house in 2001 in Tallahassee, Florida!) I feel like every time I turn around, I need to go sign papers or send someone money. Unfortunately, the money is about to run out, so I need a loan.
A couple friends of mine gathered me to talk about all of the different kinds of loans I can get to help pay for the condo. I appreciated them wanting to help, but they dropped acronyms left and right thinking that I was up on the loan lingo. Well, I’m not! I had no clue what they were talking about. And I wasn’t going to stop them in mid sentence to ask questions. I wanted them to think I am smart and up on all the latest business stuff just like them.
Well, I wish I would have taken the time to ask my questions because recently I had to sit down with a lender to talk about getting a loan and he started talking to me much like my buddies. I didn’t have a clue about PMI (and still don’t really) or why the interest rate went from 6.0 to 6.375 in just two days. All of my questions were, “what does that mean?” or “why is it like that?” I know that Brendan, the loan guy, had to be getting angry with me because I had so many questions. To make me feel even less intelligent, my questions seemed elementary to him because he never had to think twice about the answer. He knew it and was ready to answer.
I remember walking away from that meeting thinking how smart he was. But the truth is he is only that smart because it was explained to him. Someone or some book took the time to write it all out and explain it to him where he could understand it.
Sometimes I feel like I need someone to explain the Scripture to me. So, I go get a few commentaries to read up on or I ask a couple of friends that are too smart for their own good. For me to really understand it I need it explained and explained in detail.
Jesus did this for the disciples. He knew that they probably didn’t understand everything he was talking about when he talked to the crowds. Truthfully, they probably could have cared less about the topics of discussion Jesus preached on until they heard him preach it. They were all new concepts for them and for the rest of the Gentiles and Jews.
New enough that if Jesus hadn’t explained it all, they wouldn’t have understood how to live or teach and may have even turned back early and not followed Jesus the whole time. They stayed with Jesus because they began to understand, although not much, what He was about. In essence, it seems that the more they began to know, the more they began to believe. And the more they believed, the more they followed.
This has been true in my own life. I don’t read the Scriptures nearly as much as I should, but when I do, I begin to understand a little more about God. Like the disciples, the more Scripture I understand, the more I believe and am willing to follow. I guess the flip side of all this is that the less we understand and believe, the less we follow.
Part of the reason my last couple weeks have been hard is that I didn’t fully understood the loan process and all the intricate aspects of it in order to trust Brendan with my money. However, I’ve researched and even asked a few expert friends of mine for help in understanding all this new jargon. My conclusion is that Brendan knows what he is talking about. Since I believe that, it’s made it easier for me to get my loan with him.
Now, back to trying to understand God…