A Soul Seeking…A Clearer Context

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1:20 NLT

As we continue our journey of seeking what our souls need and desire, let us remember what our last blog conversation revealed…

 

“Well, in order to find something, we have to be clear about what it is that we are looking for. We have to be clear about the description or characteristics that will make it easy to identify what we are seeking? This clarity is the byproduct of being educated.”

 

The educational process helps us form a foundation for what we seek to acquire…

KNOWING.

Don’t worry this is NOT a typo…

 

The term KNOWING is used with intention verses the term KNOWLEDGE.

 

Let me explain…

 

KNOWLEDGE is defined as facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education.

 

One key definition of KNOWING worth considering in our soul seeking journey is…

a developed relationship with someone through meeting and spending time with them.

 

Furthermore KNOWING is described as:

·      being familiar or acquainted with someone or something.

·      regarding or perceiving as having a specified characteristic.

·      having a personal experience- whether emotional or situational.

 

Based on the above information KNOWING is more relational, while KNOWLEDGE is more informational.

 

The soul of a person is best suited to seek relation rather than mere information.

As it seeks to relate, the soul seeks not only to know but to also be KNOWN by those it shares relationship with.

 

This is where we find ourselves in our soul seeking journey…

 

seeking to be KNOWN…

 

By ourselves and by others.

 

To explore the need and desire of the human soul to experience knowing, let us consider a quasi case study concerning the Apollo Astronauts of the 1960s and 1970s.

 

The story is told with compelling cinematic effect in the 1998 miniseries entitled From the Earth to the Moon. One specific episode of interest is entitled “Galileo was Right.” This episode takes the viewer into the training and preparation process through which these decorated fighter pilots were transformed into what some may call “Renaissance Men.”

 

The task that they were charged to do required them to be experts in several fields of high level study such as physics, geography, geology, and even linguistics. These brave men, who had already distinguished themselves in one area of high level service, had to humble and submit themselves to the educational process as novel students again.

 

They had to seek knowledge in the form of highly specialized information, but they also had to develop relationships with their teachers and colleagues by meeting with and spending time with them…this sounds like KNOWING!

 

There is a specific scene in the episode where the astronauts are assigned to explore a canyon to seek and select a set of rocks that would provide a clearer context for the area being surveyed. They were charged to be storytellers and to provide the context of an area that others would never see or experience. Two of the “astronaut-geologists in training” raced to bring back their bounty to the unorthodox but skilled teacher and awaited approval and affirmation in pride. They received an educational experience that would expand their knowledge but temper their egos as they were taught the importance of communicating context properly when seeking something important.

 

In the journey of the soul seeking to KNOW and be KNOWN by God, it is important for us to clearly consider the context in which we find God and even ourselves. As we seek God, we are blessed to survey the cosmic, global and even local context of His creation. Everything we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel was created in the context of His love.

 

As we survey the context of His creation, we are witness to the content of His character…His invisible qualities made visible. As we see God in our community and in the faces of those we love, we become more familiar or acquainted with Him, we regard and perceive His specific characteristic, and we develop personal experiences with Him that are emotional, situational and spiritual. In the context of creation…we come to KNOW the Creator more clearly. We, like those astronauts, become better at surveying the land, whether earthly or heavenly, and we are more equipped to find the rare and rich gift who was here at the beginning of time and creation…the Triune God.

 

Come and journey with me…

                                                                 in KNOWING our souls in a CLEARER CONTEXT.

 

“I am the one who made the earth and created people to live on it.
With my hands I stretched out the heavens.

All the stars are at my command.”

Isaiah 45:12 NLT