Dishwasher Dogma

Last night, as I helped my youngest work on a report about inventions, she complained that she didn't want to know anything about dishwashers- dishwashers were stupid. There was no amount of expository preaching on my part capable of convincing her that finding out about how or why dishwashers were invented could be fun or interesting. Now take that dishwasher away and make her chore actually washing the dishes as opposed to only unloading the dishwasher and her tune might change. That's because she has a "relationship" with the dishwasher; she has experienced it and now can see what a change it has made in her life!

This morning's installment of Oswald was entitled, "Whereby Shall I know?" or "How shall I know?" He explored how we come to an understanding or knowledge of the ultimate Truth. It is through obedience, not study- through experience, not fact recitation- that we come to know God- to have relationship with Him- to love Him.

Anyone can read a Bible and have factual knowledge of God. That does not mean that they will be changed. I know people who can recite John 3:16 in multiple translations (and maybe even several languages) that haven't been truly changed by what it means to be "so loved". They are still filled with bitterness, unforgiveness, judgement, hatred, worry, anxiety, self-centeredness. (Whoa...some of those things hit just a little too close to home...)

Jesus said that if we love him, we will obey him- that if we love him, we will continue doing what he was doing- that we would be about his work, continuing it. And that if we needed him to do anything to help us continue his work, all we need do is ask and he would give. (See John 14:11-14) (On second thought, just read John 14!) Those who had experienced a relationship with him would continue his work, would find it interesting, would pursue what his heart pursued. While those with only knowledge of him, without relationship with him, would attempt to kill him.

This summer, before we went to Petit St. Vincent, I was so excited about it I read everything I could about the place. I would google search PSV every other day, just to see if any new blog sites, travel reviews, or websites had popped up over night. I knew that most travel books in Barnes and Nobles contained only a paragraph or two about PSV. I simply could not get enough information about it. And then we went there...I experienced it. There is nothing like it, no way I could explain it. I didn't blog about it- I couldn't do it- it was too overwhelming, too wonderful. It would take multiple entries to express to you what I experienced there. So many entries, you'd be sick of it! I just didn't even try. (Well, I did try- I just couldn't bring myself to type anything!)

I think that's what Oswald's trying to say about a relationship with God. That until you experience it, it doesn't change you. You can know about it, you can fight it, you can pretend you've been there when you haven't. And you will continue to walk in darkness. But those who know him, who have experienced him, who have obeyed him, have come into a relationship with him that has changed them forever. They have seen a great light and no longer walk in darkness(Isaiah 9:2). This relationship is gained only through experiencing him. And experiencing him requires that you step out on faith and obey. You do what he does. You follow his heart. You may not be able to explain it to someone but you know it's true anyway. You've experienced the dishwasher... and it's a good thing.

Jesus once again addressed them: "I am the world's Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in."
The Pharisees objected, "All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on."
Jesus replied, "You're right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I've come from and where I go next. You don't know where I'm from or where I'm headed. You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don't make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn't make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father. That fulfills the conditions set down in God's Law: that you can count on the testimony of two witnesses. And that is what you have: You have my word and you have the word of the Father who sent me."
They said, "Where is this so-called Father of yours?"
Jesus said, "You're looking right at me and you don't see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father."

-John 8:12-19 The Message