UNDERSTANDING – Please don’t let me be misunderstood!  Please understand me!  What the world needs now, more than ever, is understanding!  How often we hear the word but don’t know what it really means.

In the Bible, understanding is not defined merely as the gathering of information.  It has more to do with a lifestyle of trusting God and living wisely. The Bible makes it clear that there are many things we are incapable of understanding.  Yet in other passages it is used in parallel with the wisdom that we are called to pursue.

One of my earliest memorized verses is also a favorite of many, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”  [Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV]

We are told many times in the book of Proverbs to pursue understanding but never to trust in our own limited capacity to fully grasp what we dimly perceive.  Instead we are to find wisdom in our relationship with the Almighty, the Holy One.  Trust in God.  There’s the starting point of true understanding.

Even in the New Testament, Paul tells us in a passage usually reserved for weddings, “At present we are people looking at puzzling reflections in a mirror.  The time will come when we shall see reality whole and face to face!  At present all I know is a little fraction of the truth, but the time will come when I shall know it as fully as God now knows me!”  [1 Corinthians 13:12, Phillips paraphrase]

It will be in relation with God that we find true understanding.  Not full comprehension, but sufficient wisdom to live the abundant, rich, full lives that God intends for us to experience.  To know God is to find understanding.  To be fully grasped by God will be the key to direction in life when the pathway is not clear.

That’s when we find the balance we need for a healthy life.  If we focus only on ourselves, we will never be satisfied.  We’ll always feel misunderstood.  But if we turn our attention to God and others we might be surprised at what we can learn.  People won’t be such a mystery.  Life won’t appear to be such a puzzle.

When it comes to the desire to have people understand us and respond to our needs, we are to take a different tack.  Rather than seeking to be understood, we are to focus on understanding others.  This means we must learn to see life from their perspective – to “walk a mile in their shoes.”  And we can learn how to see the world from God’s perspective by our study of Scripture.  That is the basis for true wisdom.

As I grow I discover how much more of the world there is to understand.  Just when I thought I had everything figured out, something new emerges.  That’s part of the adventure on the pathway of understanding.  There is so much more to be experienced and so much more knowledge to be gained.

We’ll never have all our questions answered in this lifetime.  But we will understand better which questions we should be asking.  God promises to give us enough understanding so that we can know – despite the complexity of life, the simple foundational truths that will guide us through by faith in the One who knows all the answers.

• Where do you find life most confusing right now?
• How do you feel most misunderstood by those around you?
• Where are you sensing the need to trust God even when everything isn’t totally clear?
• If you could ask God one question right now, what would it be?