Knowing, and not knowing

Today, September 6, 2017, we know a storm is coming. Hurricane Irma. It’s a “Category 5” storm, and is the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record, according to Hurricane experts.

Thanks to Smartphones, and high speed internet connections, we can watch real time radar images, live video links, and the latest predictions and assessments about Irma. So much information and data, all meant to warn us and help us prepare.

As I write this at home here in Jacksonville, we aren’t sure what this storm will bring to us, or when. But we do know it’s coming, and that it has the potential of bringing wide spread damage, and even death.

Thankfully, we are being warned about this; hopefully, lives will therefore be saved. And, in just a few days, we’ll know what this storm will mean.

We seem to be in a strange vortex of “knowing, and not knowing.”

We know this: a storm is working its way towards us, and that it’s big and dangerous.

But we don’t know this: will this hurt us, or pass us by, or miraculously dissolve? For those of us who experienced Hurricane Matthew last year, here it is again: an all too familiar stress of knowing, but not knowing.

This is a dramatic picture of the “knowing, and not knowing” of our journey as Christ followers. Another way to put it, we live in the “already, and not yet.”

We already have Christ’s life within us, but we don't see him face to face yet.

We already see God change lives and heal hearts, but we don't see his work in all lives yet.

We already have evidence that God is good, but we are still seeking his goodness in so many ways.

We already know some things about God, but we don't know everything about him yet. That will come in the end of days, when we see him, face to face!

Jesus warned us that in the end of days, there will be hard times, natural calamities, global war. We know that.

But he didn’t tell us when or where or how. We don’t know that.

There it is: the knowing, and not knowing.

Jesus warned us that, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.” Luke 21.10-11

(I’m musing today: Could some of these “great signs from heaven” be live video from the International Space Station as it films Hurricane Irma churning through the Caribbean Sea?)

Jesus didn’t specify days and times and years of the “end times.” We can feel a gnawing “unknowing.” We can cry out with the psalmists, “When, Lord?” We simply don’t know when the final days will come, or what they will feel like, or what price we will be asked to pay for Christ and his kingdom.

But we know that loss and death will not have the final word, because of Jesus.  We know that what follows end time disaster will be an eternal life of peace, life and rest. 

When we read Jesus’ warnings, he wants to encourage us that God is working toward a great final day when his rule and reign covers a new world with his justice and mercy. 

So, with Jesus, there is a certainty in “knowing” that dark times will come in the last days, but that dark times will not have the final word.

Here’s how the “story” ends, after the darkest of days. It’s found in the oft misunderstood book of John’s Revelation, chapter 21.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” ⁵ And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” 

When you read this, give to Jesus the pain or fear of our current journey of “knowing, but not knowing.” And allow him to give you his peace and mercy. Invite him into your drama of “knowing, and not knowing” and accept his offer of new life.