Some of you thought when you became a Christian that you would gain all the answers to life’s difficulties. Here is a reality check and hopefully a pressure release for some of you: Just because we are Christians doesn’t mean we know how to respond to everything that comes our way. We don’t have all the answers.
In Brennan Manning’s book Ruthless Trust, he tells the story of the brilliant ethicist John Kavanaugh who went to work for three months at “the house of the dying” in Calcutta. He was seeking a clear answer as to how best to spend the rest of his life. On the first morning there he met Mother Teresa who asked, “And what can I do for you?” Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him. “What do you want me to pray for?” she asked.
He voiced the request that he had borne thousands of miles from the United States: “Pray that I have clarity.” She said firmly, “No, I will not do that.” When he asked her why, she said, “Clarity is the last thing you are cling- ing to and must let go of.” When Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.”
The reality is, we often have more questions than we do answers. Sometimes we lack the faith that will give us sustained hope. Even though we know God is with us, sometimes we feel utterly and completely alone.
The reality is, even though we know, we doubt.
Most of us believe that the more spiritually mature we become the more clarity we will have. Maybe the truth is that the more spiritually mature we become the less clarity we need.
