Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“He said, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that
“looking they may not perceive,
and listening they may not understand.”’”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, February 10, 2025
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
But the disciples could never figure it out either. So what does that tell me? That it doesn’t matter how closely I follow Jesus. It doesn’t matter how well I listen. It doesn’t matter that I belong to a church (which, to some people, means I’m somehow special/better than others who don’t). It doesn’t matter that I went to seminary. Sometimes I am just not going to understand. I’m not going to understand what God is trying to say to me or do in the world. I’m going to get frustrated (I will come right out and say that probably my biggest emotional trigger in the world is not understanding something and, conversely, not being understood). The fact remains that God’s thoughts are not my thoughts and God’s ways are not my ways and I was not there when God created all of existence as I know it so I need to just accept not understanding.
This is hard for me.
Maybe you relate. Or maybe you don’t. Anne Lamott said that the opposite of faith isn’t fear. It’s certainty. So I guess when I bump up against my own bewilderment, once I get past the shame and emotional triggers that come with not understanding, I need to lean into my faith. That I don’t have to understand. I just have to trust that God’s got it.
How do I handle it when I just do not understand God?
