There Ought to Be Some Mystery Somewhere on Your Journey

Some people can handle mystery everywhere except with God.

They accept that medicine is a practice, that law allows for “reasonable doubt,” that psychology works with theories, and that science advances through hypotheses—all of which admit, “we don’t fully know yet.” But when it comes to God, they want airtight explanations, no tension, no paradox, no “not yet.” They want certainty more than they want truth.

But God will always be, at some level, un-graspable.

If you can completely figure God out, He’s not God—He’s you.

I stand with Richard Rohr, the Franciscan who says, “True spiritual experience leads to humility and an acceptance of not knowing, which fosters a deeper faith and freedom than certainty.” That’s so right. Real faith doesn’t strut; it bows. Real faith doesn’t remove mystery; it makes room for it. Instead of that arrogant lust for answers, we’re invited to live in the beautiful tension—to hold both what we know and what we don’t know, both revelation and hiddenness, both promise and silence.

That’s why Hebrews 11:8 is so disruptive:

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8)

That little phrase—“not knowing”—is the Holy Spirit’s highlighter.

If God would send Abraham—the father of faith—on a journey without giving him the full map, then mystery is not a sign God is absent; mystery is often a sign God is leading. God was not being vague. He was being God.

Sometimes God withholds details so we will walk with Him instead of walk with a plan.

So what do we do? We submit in silence. We trust in the gap or out of the gap. We refuse to grumble against what we don’t understand. We say, “If Abraham’s faith is my faith, then Abraham’s God is my God. If he could walk ‘not knowing,’ so can I.”

And then Spurgeon steps in—oh, how he could preach!—and he reminds us that one day every single one of us will take the final mysterious journey:

“The time must come to each of us, when, in a certain sense, we must go forth from this world, not knowing the place to which we are going… ‘Arise and take thy last journey.’ … We will go forth, not knowing whither we go, but yet knowing that since He is with us, passing through the gloomy vale, we need fear no evil… We must be going to our Father’s house… to that royal city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

That’s it right there:
    •    We don’t know where,
    •    but we do know Who.
    •    We don’t know the route,
    •    but we do know the Guide.
    •    We don’t know how deep the river,
    •    but we do know Who meets us in the river.

So mystery is not the enemy of faith—mystery is the escort of faith.

Today’s Grace Reflection ?

Where in your life right now is God asking you to move without all the details—like Abraham? Is it a calling, a relationship step, a ministry launch, a season of letting go, or even aging and mortality? Grace says: You don’t have to know everything to trust the One who knows everything.

Journal Prompt ✍?
    1.    Name one area where you’ve been demanding certainty from God. What would it look like to trade certainty for trust there?
    2.    Pray Spurgeon’s spirit over your own life: “Lord, when it’s time for my last journey, let me go like Abraham—not knowing, but trusting.”
    3.    Finish this sentence: “Even if I don’t know where I’m going, I know I’m going with…” (write God’s name or attribute).

Grace to you,
Cedric
Traditionalwriter@yahoo.com