Paradigm Shifts

Honestly, my spiritual - and emotional growth as a Christian amazes me sometimes. There are truths revealed, and learnings accomplished that I can barely even comprehend. It is a knowing deep inside of you that is difficult to put into words. And yet ... you know without a doubt that it's there.

More than once in my life, I've started off on a journey with one purpose or objective in mind. But sometimes before the journey is even halfway through, I realize the purpose is different. An example might be a job or a project. I dive into it thinking I'm going to contribute this or that, or accomplish this or that. But halfway through it, I realize that God is doing something in me instead.

Often what I realize is that my involvement in that place or time is not even about the project that I'm on. So I may work for a bank or a church, but it isn't about the bank or the church. It's about what God wants to teach me, or He uses that workplace to accomplish something in me. At other times, I might think I'm helping someone out ... only to find later that I'm the one being helped.

I realize that we serve an amazing God. His powers and His ways are so far beyond any realm of human understanding. And I sit and wonder how many people can appreciate even this much of Him. Most people would consider me to be a reasonably intelligent individual. And yet, I struggle to get my mind around the paradigms that God shifts for me. Often I'm standing there thinking, "Okay, what just happened here?"

If I'm that intelligent and I have that much of a challenge, what's it like for someone who might not be as intelligent? Does it just fly completely above their heads? I guess it was about a dozen or so years ago, when I realized that my level of ignorance was pretty vast. Mind you, my ignorance was always there - I just wasn't cognizant of it.

It seems that the older I get, the greater the sea of my ignorance expands before me. To put it another way, I never before knew how much I don't know. Today, I'm a little more aware of how much I don't know. But quite frankly, the level of my own ignorance is still dawning on me. And there it is, another paradigm shift straight from God.