Do you have a hard time saying the words: “I don’t know”? The longer I live, the more I realize how much I don’t know. I consider myself a life-long learner – I’m curious about everything, and I continue to seek answers to my questions, such as:

• How does this thing work? Or why isn’t this thing working?
• Should I go to the Emergency Room, check with Web MD, or just tough this one out?
• What is streaming? (I do know it has nothing to do with rivers and lakes.)
• Why does the ice machine jam when I have company?
• Why do weeds voluntarily appear, yet we have to intentionally plant and nurture flowers?
• Why do people choose to be mean and hateful? (For this one, I find only excuses, not answers.)

After all these years, I have come to the conclusion that I really don’t know much.

Even wise Solomon continued to search for wisdom -- he was a life-long learner too!

“In my search for wisdom and in my observation of people’s burdens here on earth, I discovered that there is ceaseless activity, day and night. I realized that no one can discover everything God is doing under the sun. Not even the wisest people discover everything, no matter what they claim.” (Ecclesiastes 8:16-17)

Chuck Swindoll has said, “If you aren’t conscious of your ignorance, you’re more ignorant than you know.”

After writing ELEVEN VOLUMES on The Story of Civilization, Will Durant came to this conclusion: My knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance.

Both the Old and New Testaments reinforce this conclusion:

• “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us…” (Deuteronomy 29:29)

• “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and untraceable His ways!” (Romans 11:33)

We are accountable for what we know – the things that God has revealed to us. But the things He has not yet revealed to us, we must acknowledge that we just don’t know.

Father, thank You for revealing some of Your secrets to us and writing them on our hearts. Help us realize that there are many things about You and Your ways that we just can’t fathom. Help us be content with the not knowing – trusting You to reveal to us only what we need to know. Amen

By Judy Shrout