Our Own Perversity

Here is a great little quote from James Spiegel and his book Gum, Geckos and God. In this part of the book he is discussing the correlation between knowledge and trust—we trust those who have knowledge. Read what he says about this…

The other day I was sitting in a faculty meeting, trying not to doze off during some committee reports. As I looked around, I mused over how much each of my colleagues understands about his or her discipline. It occurred to me that if there was a single mind that possessed all of the knowledge in that room, its intelligence would be surpassed in human history. I also considered how easy it would be to trust such a person if he or she were to counsel me on some matter. From there I extrapolated: What if that person had all of the combined knowledge of everyone in Indiana? In the United States? Of the entire world population? Even if God had merely the sum of all human understanding, he should be easy to trust. Yet his wisdom and knowledge infinitely exceed the best human comprehension. Still we struggle to trust him. How twisted is that?

Faith is essentially the practice of trust. And our routine failure to properly trust an infinitely wise God reveals something of our own perversity. We all desire to control our circumstances, and faith is a surrendering of that control. So we naturally tend to rebel against faith. But God graciously counteracts this tendency by nurturing us. Like a good parent, he consistently demonstrates his love. And we, like kids, must trust him on this basis.

Comments (6)

1
Anonymous's picture

We all desire to control our circumstances, and faith is a surrendering of that control.”

How true and yet how hard to apply.

Thanks for the thought-provoking quote Tim.

2
Anonymous's picture

Tim, in this portion of the quotation, the word “surpassed” should be “unsurpassed.”

It occurred to me that if there was a single mind that possessed all of the knowledge in that room, its intelligence would be surpassed in human history.”

3
Anonymous's picture

Maybe this is when we truly begin to worship God. When we understand that He is unfailingly worthy of our trust.

4
Anonymous's picture

We doubt God’s knowledge, but even more his goodness.

It’s perversely easy for us to see the supposed evidence of God’s failure and/or uncaring (Why did you let that happen?) while ignoring the plentiful evidence of his goodness, care, and trustworthiness.

5
Anonymous's picture

What an incredible thought…I don’t even know where to begin with my analysis.Thanks for sharing, Tim!

6
Anonymous's picture

The one disagreement I have with this is that intelligence doesn’t make someone worthy of our trust. Hannibal Lecter? ‘Nuff said. The trustworthiness of God is based primarily on His character and His heart, not His intelligence. Victims of abuse often have difficulty trusting God, not because they believe that He’s not very bright but because they don’t believe God is trustworthy based on their past experience. The cross is the best example of his trustworthiness, because that’s where we most clearly see His heart. We have to learn to trust Him based on what He did at the cross rather than allowing our trials in this life to cloud our view.

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