May 6, 2003 (re-edited September 12, 2005)
The Holy Spirit stunned me with a surprising revelation. I've always wondered about the genius Christians versus the mentally challenged Christians. Some people have such a mental advantage over the rest of us. They can grasp and memorize Scripture in a moment. They can understand complex doctrines. They can even get degrees in religion and write books and become famous Christian authors and speakers.
Moving toward the other end of the spectrum there is a gigantic number of precious brothers and sisters who are of average intelligence. And even further beyond are some like Ed. Ed had some kind of mental, developmental issue. He struggled with even the most simple thinking assignments.
You may have known someone like Ed. He wore this great. big, old cowboy hat, right in the sanctuary during worship, many Sundays. Transported to church from a group home, on a special bus, he eagerly came to give his love to Jesus. Ed could rarely put a good sentence of words together. Yet he could magnificently sing that old standard, "In The Garden", by Charles Austin Miles, that begins "I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses,..." His rich baritone voice was a total surprise ringing forth from his otherwise challenged life! Every year they would ask him to sing that song in the Sunday School program. I felt the move of the Spirit of God whenever he sang.
Other than his great singing ability Ed was very, very limited. He struggled just to absorb a simple children's Bible story. Nevertheless he loved Jesus with all of his heart. He went to be with the Lord some years ago. I miss him. When I started attending that church Ed was a permanent Sunday morning fixture, and I could often pick him out by his big, old hat.
I've often wondered about the huge difference between the genius Christians and the challenged Christians. It seemed like the bright thinkers had such a great advantage over we who had come into this World without loads of IQ points.
I was praying and seeking the Lord; telling the Lord about a complex problem that I couldn't figure out. The big thinkers with an IQ of 180 sometimes seem to be way ahead of those of us with average or less IQ. It appeared to me that if only I was a genius I could do so much better getting to the bottom of problems. The Lord pointed out something. HE showed me that my idea that brainy people have far greater success discovering spiritual solutions is mostly an optical illusion fostered by my limited point of view. The Lord then proceeded to give me a peek out of HIS telescope mounted in the Heavenlies.
So here's how it is in reality: The thinking of a Christian moron, of which I could be one, might be compared to the thinking of a germ. While the thinking of the most brilliant Christian genius is equivalent, in God's sight, to the deepest thoughts of a cockroach. You have to admit the difference between a single celled organism and a cockroach is pretty significant, if those are your only two known points of reference in the universe.
This revelation made me laugh. It tickled me, when in my wee little mind I saw a cartoon of a germ and a cockroach seated in a lecture hall at M.I.T. They were both listening very intently to a "Magna Cum Laude" doctor of astrophysics, with significant post doctoral work, explaining Einstein's "Theory of Relativity." This doctor of astrophysics was not your usual boring lecturer. He was gifted at making complex things understandable to the masses. Needless to say, even with all that help, neither the cockroach nor the germ passed the final exam!
This whole revelation is also kind of like my surprise at riding over the hills in an airplane for the first time. I had climbed those hills and they weren't easy to climb at all. But from the airplane those hills looked like a landscaped lawn. And the mountains looked like something you could move in your shovel. God is so high up and so far ahead of us in thinking that our big differences, down here, are very small differences indeed, compared to HIS high and glorious thinking.
Maybe the Lord chuckles when HE sees us passing out BAs, Masters and PhDs to those who graduate from schools of "higher education." At best our greatest learning and deepest insights are cockroach thinking.
Maybe you have never stopped to ponder the fact that there are many more germs in this world than there are cockroaches?? If God were going to inspire a Bible for germs and cockroaches, would the Book be on the level of the more common germ, since then all could fully understand and receive? Wouldn't it be a sad waste for the Lord to inspire a bug Bible on the intellectual level of cockroaches?? If HE did such a thing HE would have to depend on the cockroaches to, hopefully, write The Purpose Driven Bug, The Prayer of Jaybug, Bug Bondage Breakers, plus many theoBUGOlogical papers to clarify and clear-up Bible truths, so the germs might share in the bug-Bible bounty???
"Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" [1st Corinthians 1:20] "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." [Isaiah 55:8-9]
I began to chuckle as I thought about what God had revealed. As a former engineering student, I can see that the reasoning, discussion and debate method of coming to truth is very limited. It is like a man who only has a pencil and a 12 inch ruler. He is assigned to measure the distance from Los Angeles to New York City. The error introduced by his zillion pencil marks on the pavement of thousands of miles of roadway makes his great endeavor very untrustworthy. I have to face the fact that my computer isn't big enough to double-check God's calculations! God knows that, and so the Lord has provided the gift of faith, and revelation knowledge to any who seek. I need revelation knowledge.
I realized that I didn't have to totally grasp and comprehend anything as long as God understands everything. I just said, "Lord, this needs fixing. You know how to fix it in me. I will probably never see the whole picture clearly. And now I see I don't need to mentally understand it. I just release YOU to fix it, dear Lord, any way you see fit; in Jesus Name. Amen!"
clint