An idol is like salt - it is what you depend upon to bring meaning and flavor to an otherwise bland or painfully distasteful meal.
God's invitation of friendship, in Jesus Christ, offers a share in God's way of knowing the world, of seeing and acting in it, of imagining its present and future in God's love... God's friendship is dangerous to us because it undermines our handy friendships and ways of detachment, and, in the process, it undermines the manner in which we are attached to the world. If we have been setting out to find ourselves through following our own way and building our own futures, God's friendship undermines our identities and the vision of the world that we call our own.
The greatest benefit of a good education has always been that it enables us to think clearly. We learn to draw different kinds of logically straight lines and how to count in a variety of ways - in highly sophisticated forms and modes. But, says the Pundit [Ecclesiastes' author], there are some things that education, even the best education, is powerless to do: it cannot untangle the twists in the human heart; it cannot make up for what is lacking in the soul. Perhaps he too had noticed that some of the most intelligent and well-educated individuals are among the saddest and most tortured people.
When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe man's labor on earth--his eyes not seeing sleep day or night--then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it. Ecclesiastes 10:16-17
In the words of C.S. Lewis: 'I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away...' The bottom line of human knowledge is simple: we can't know it all. Indeed, we can know only a very little about God's vast and rich creation. Awareness of our limitations should breed humility and dependence. For true wisdom is found only where Job found it: in surrender to God.
My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:2-3
To fear God, to trust God, to love God, and to know God - these are really one and the same thing. In fact, the fear of God about which the Pundit speaks arises from the discovery of God's love for us in our sin and weakness. It is the sense of awe that results from the discovery that he knows me through and through, means to destroy all that is sinful in me, and yet does so because he loves me with an intensely faithful love. That stretches my mind and emotions to their limit...
There is what Paul calls a 'futility' in our 'thinking.' But the fear of God reverses this, placing him at the center of our universe. He is at the center of life. We see everything in the light of his creating and sustaining activity. Then things begin to make sense: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him." [Psalm 25:14]
Without Him, life is at best a puzzle, at worst a tragedy; this is not a self-contained 'user-friendly' universe. With Him we learn that even when his immediate purposes are hidden from us his ways are perfect (for we do not always, nor do we ever fully, understand his plans). We also learn this: even though we will never know everything about this world, we do know something about everything: God is its Creator, and he is our Heavenly Father.
Sinclair Ferguson, The Pundit's Folly
Questions and especially questions without answers move us to contemplate a source of truth larger, with more authority, than ourselves. Granted, we live in a world in which we ignore the clear answers to many of the questions. Most of us know what we should do in enough situations so that we can survive and even thrive. Some of us, therefore, don't have time nor desire to consider the more difficult questions for which there is no clear and available answer. We prefer to live as if these questions don't exist, since the answers don't exist for us. We prefer to view the world apart from the existence of these plaguing questions. The danger, of course, is that we will not contribute to the discovery of answers, or that we will miss any authority and source of truth larger than ourselves or our system. We may even miss God. Concerning him, how many unanswered questions exist? Of course, you may assume he doesn't exits since all your questions cannot be answered.
N. Lewis, In Search of Satisfaction
Sunday School, January 9 2011
