From Darrell's Desk
By Rev. Darrell Maguire
Just yesterday, I was responding to my cats' funny chirpy growling they make when ever they see a bird in the back yard. They are very offended by robins that bounce along looking for worms or whatever they can draw from the grass. As I watched the robin, with an engorged breast (clearly a female carrying eggs), I wondered what in the world they were foraging for.
March has been a cruel month for all of us, robins included. Early in the month we experienced some marvellous weather, with temperatures almost too warm for this time of year. Then wham, we get a snowstorm. One day you are going without a jacket and the next day out comes the heavy coat, boots, and scarves. One evening I am on my front step being accosted by mosquitoes and then the next shovelling the walk. Everyone and everything are confused. I guess we could say that is March for you in this part of the world. You never know what you are going to get, and we know that April can behave just as unpredictably.
Nature is renown for the curve balls that it throws at us. We are getting pretty used to the idea that weather is unpredictable. Some scientists are warning us that this is only going to get worse with global warming but that is a topic for another day.
As human beings we rely on and love predictability. In every aspect of our lives, we look for patterns. When unpleasant things happen to us, we look for causes. We have talked before about our need to often ask the question “why” when our world seems to cave in on us. We long for certainty. We long for someone, anyone, to tell us the way things are and why they are the way they are. It's easier for us. We like that we do not have to think for ourselves. We look for this certainty from politicians, from employers, from teachers and yes, even from preachers. Sometimes we rely on the law or the Bible to give us certainty. Unfortunately, we often listen to the wrong person espousing the wrong ideas or the wrong interpretation of authoritative documents or events.
This love and search for certainty is so ingrained in us that we feel threatened when that certainty is challenged. Why do we become unhinged or lash out when probing questions are asked or divergent ideas are offered? What do we place our trust in? It's a powerful question that I am asking myself more and more.
I can claim to trust God. Certainly, a perfect place to begin. Yet, what am I really trusting in when I declare that I trust God? Is my trust, my faith if you prefer, based on God exclusively, or my thinking, and my reasoning, and my experience of God?
Let's be honest, it is the ultimate expression of arrogance to think we have God all figured out. The Apostle Paul thought he had God all figured out, as he zealously persecuted the early church, until God met him on the road to Damascus and shattered his assurance in the “faith of his fathers”.
It's daring, and maybe scary for some folks to hear, a pastor who loves God in Christ, to state I haven't got all the answers, or I don't know what God has in store for us. I do know God loves us so greatly that He sent His Son to go to the cross to draw us all to Himself. I think a great part of being a follower of Christ is learning to accept that we do not know everything, but praise be to God that Christ does. That when the storms of life, which are unpredictable, blow in upon us we can trust that “all things work for God, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
