One Thing I Wish I Could Tell My Generation

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. – Proverbs 14:12

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to counsel. – Proverbs 12:15

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“What’s the one thing you wish you could get everyone in your generation to understand?”

I recently had a discussion with my wife about this question and, given the fact that my answer has undoubtedly changed throughout my life and could very well again, I wanted to write a post about what idea I believe my peers might benefit from the most.

We live in a cultural and philosophical moment largely defined by desire and subjectivity. We separate the idea of truth into one that can be shaped and defined by each individual person (“my truth,” and “your truth,”) and then inform it largely by what we want the truth to be. If facts and reality bolster our own private notions of what is true, then good for us. If they contradict them, however, we simply continue on as if they didn’t matter or hold any significance. Practically speaking, many of us believe that the truth is what we decide it is and that we have the power to invoke the change we would like to see in the world through sheer force of will, good intention, and pretending.

What this has created is a heavy emphasis on the notion of experience as the supreme decider of what is real. We define truth by our desires and we classify reality according to our experiences. If something seems right to us, if something appears to make sense, if something feels like it ought to be, than we go with it without even the slightest hint of critical reflection. In making our desires and experiences the ultimate arbiters of truth and reality, we functionally set ourselves up as our own final authorities, judging all of the things that truly matter by the limited width of our own private existence.

This, my friends, is a recipe for disaster.

A few points of observation:

1. Your experience can mislead you.

As I write this post, my senses tell me that I am sitting still. The reality is that I, along with the rest of the planet, am orbiting around the sun at about 67,000mph. More than that, our entire solar system is whipping along at an almost unimaginable 448,000mph through the Milky Way galaxy. As far as I can tell, I experience absolutely none of that speed or motion.

The desk that my computer monitor is currently sitting on feels solid to the touch. But the investigations of science inform me that that the atoms that make up the desk are mostly just empty space. Nevertheless, emptiness and space are not what I experience when I try to push my hand through what all of my senses tell me is a completely solid desk. Once again, what appears to be true to me becomes wrong the closer I get to the truth.

We see this reality reflected all throughout our lives, in big ways and small: far too often, the food we enjoy the most is not the food we should regularly be eating. The behaviors that we tend to enjoy the most are not the ones that tend to benefit us very much. Throughout almost all of life, the good things are the hard things: integrity, patience, discipline, and virtue are difficult even though they are universal and unequivocal goods.

Simply put, our subjective experiences are not hard wired into absolute reality and our desires do not automatically align with what’s good or right.

2. God requires obedience, not understanding or agreement.

Hebrews 5:8 tells us that even Christ “learned obedience through what He suffered,” and we know from the Gospel accounts of what occurred in the Garden of Gethsemane that His desire was not perfectly aligned with His Father’s in that moment. He asked for the cup to pass but nevertheless submitted to the will of God. For doing so, He was “seated at the right hand of the throne of God,” (Hebrews 12:2) and “became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” (Hebrews 5:9)

“And by this we know that we have come to know Him,” I John 2:3 teaches, “if we keep His commandments.” Not if we understand them. Not if we agree with them. Not if they make sense to us. Not if we desire to do them.

Obedience becomes obedience when we stop doing the things we want to do and start doing the things we’d rather not do. Make no mistake: God is most definitely in the business of commanding us how to live our lives in many ways. If we insist on signing off on each and every directive based on whether or not they comply with our own subjective understanding of how things ought to go, we will never come to obey or know God.

I’m quite sure Abraham did not fully understand the command to sacrifice Isaac. I think it’s probably safe to assume that Isaiah may have wondered about being commanded to walk barefoot and naked for three years. Ezekiel was probably not overjoyed at the idea of being commanded to lie on his left side for 390 days and then his right for 40 more while being bound so that he could demonstrate the judgment of God against Israel and Judah.

God’s commands don’t always make sense to us. They may never make sense to us. The wrong conclusion to reach is that you will refuse to obey them until they do.

I recently came across the following statement on Twitter:

My friends, this is a dangerous and foolhardy way to judge your “spiritual worldview”. Your experience is not ultimate. Furthermore, you can’t even be sure that what you perceive your experience to be is fully correct.

Let your final appeal come from an authoritative source outside of yourself. Develop a heart for obedience to the Scriptures by cultivating a faith that trusts in the Word of God more than it does in your own understanding.

God is holy, we are sinful. God is eternal, we are temporal. God is omniscient, we are limited.

It should make sense that God doesn’t always make sense. We don’t have the capacity to fully understand Him. Do not wait to do so before you decide to bow to Him.

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Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
- Proverbs 3:5-6

Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
- Proverbs 28:26

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been His counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to Him
that He might be repaid?”

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.
- Romans 11:33-36