I was walking around campus today reflecting on, "who is Jesus Christ?" And it came as a humbling surprise that it took me a while to move past answers like "The son of God," "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...(John 1:14)" etc.
I don't think these answers are wrong or bad.
The thing that did bug me was how many of these answers are memorized but not understood. It began to bother me more and more not in the "oh no did I turn off the oven?" or "did I close the door?" sort of way. But, in the "I know there's more to my friend than that." What's under the foundations of the coffee shop I'm sitting in?
Is there more to what's written in John 1:14, more than what is said/memorized. What does it MEAN; the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Is there more to Jesus than he came, he died, and he rose again. NOT to take away from that because it is some cool stuff. But what was Jesus' life like? what was the life of his disciples like?
A point made in math.
In elementary school I learned 1+1=2. I'm going to take a leap of faith and say most of us can recite this fact (yes, I am aware there's some higher math that says it doesn't. But if you explained it to an elementary school kid they'd look at you like you were the idiot). And when the time was right we memorized and learned the times tables. Now, we can rapidly recite anything from the times tables without much thought. Anything from 1x1 to 12x12 is readily available at the tip of our tongues. We command it, we rule it, and we use it. And because we've learned the basic mechanics we can do other things like 3,733 x 9,243. Most of us probably can't do that one without a piece of paper and a pencil, or calculator/cellphone.
My understanding is this, Jesus is the Son of God who came to this earth lived, died, and rose again. He came with a purpose for His life and he taught others of this purpose. What would it mean to step up my understanding of Jesus? What would it mean to seek and put in some work to, not just memorize the answer but to revisit the basic mechanics for the purpose of growth. To be reassured in my understanding of Jesus but to move into asking God the more complicated question. To not be appeased with my elementary Sunday school edumacation.
I've started this blog to show how God is moving in my life and how sometimes we stumble over God in life. But I also feel led to externally process (ENTJ all the way..for better and for worst...for now not for forever) the tougher/ deeper questions of faith.
"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me." 1 Corinthians 13:11
-J.Kay <= because somehow along the way I became Just Kidding
