Knowing the Knowledge that Changes the World

Although this excerpt from The Waiting Room: 60 Meditations for Finding Peace & Hope in Crisis was written about seeking certainty in the midst of health crisis, it applies to all of the ways we may seek to “know,” “to have certainty,” and how God calls us to trust him, even when we don’t have all the answers. In this election season, I need to ask myself where I am putting my trust. Maybe you do too!

Knowledge That Will Change Your World

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
    who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made all things,
    who alone stretched out the heavens,
    who spread out the earth by myself….

Isaiah 44:24, ESV

“Knowledge that will change your world…”

It is a brilliant tagline for a hospital. I first noticed it on a sticker in the parking deck of the medical center. It plays right into our deepest fears and fiercest desires in the season of a health crisis. I do not fault the hospital for using it. Instead, I thank them for the hope it offered us.

After all, many of the world’s experts were gathered at this medical center, and they knew (almost) everything there was to know about brain tumors. Our neurosurgeon operated exclusively on brain tumors. He had performed thousands of awake craniotomies. Surely these people had the knowledge that would change our son’s world.

And yet…I recognize my own idolatry in that way of thinking. Idols are things we trust in more than God to deliver us. Long ago, I heard a speaker suggest we uncover our idols by asking, “Where do you find your security, significance, and sense of safety?” As we played the waiting game, I would have had to confess, “I am seeking my sense of security and safety in these world-expert doctors.”

The Bible warns us about putting our trust in idols, in earthly things that do not really have the power to save us. Isaiah 44 describes foolish people who take a piece of wood, use half of it to make a fire and the other half to carve an idol. They fall down before the idol and worship it, saying, “Rescue me… you are my god” (Isaiah 44:17, NLT). But the idol neither blinks nor moves, for it is merely a piece of wood. Isaiah observes, “The poor, deluded fool feeds on ashes. He trusts something that can’t help him at all” (Isaiah 44:20, NLT).

Please don’t misunderstand me – I do believe doctors and medical experts have much knowledge and skill to offer us. Still, the gospel invites us to trust fully in the one, true GOD who can and will deliver us, the God who made all things and knows all things. God, who has the knowledge that will truly change our world, invites us to come to him and rest in him.

Prayer

All-knowing, ever-loving Father, you are our Creator and Redeemer. You know us fully, and one day we will fully know you and fully trust you. Thank you for the knowledge you have given to medical personnel and their faithfulness in acquiring it. Help us to trust in your knowledge more than theirs. In the name of your redeeming Son, our Savior, Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read Isaiah 43:9-20; Proverbs 3:5-6.

Listen to “He Is God” by Susan Calderazzo at https://www.reverbnation.com/susancalderazzo/songs.

For Reflection: In what things are you looking for a sense of security, safety and significance during this season?