Part 1: Not Understanding
Introduction
Last week I posted a Reflection called “…Lean not on your own understanding”. It was a partial quote from Proverbs 3:5,6: “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” It reminded me of the title of the first Christian book I ever bought – “In Understanding Be Men” – the title taken from 1 Corinthians 14:10 in the King James Version of the Bible.
This post and the next two are reflections on my spiritual journey; a journey of parts that together have taken me into a deeper understanding of what it means to be a Christian, a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Each part tells of my journey into an ever growing intimate relationship with God Himself as I have understand more clearly what it means to be a child of God.
But first it might be helpful to set out a definition of the word “understanding”:
Understanding is the power of comprehending or the power to make experience intelligible by applying concepts and categories.
I’ve always been interested in how things work. Soon after getting my first bike, I decided to work out how the brakes and the gears worked. So I took them to bits in an attempt to understand. With the bike in bits I discovered even then I didn’t understand – I was unable to put any of it back together again! I was however blessed with a very understanding and forgiving father who patiently showed me how to put it all back together.
And now I realise and rejoice in having a heavenly Father who is even more understanding and forgiving!
Not Understanding
I was Christened as a baby into the Church of England. My spiritual journey started when I was very young, with my mother reading to me on her lap. The stories were often about Jesus. To these story times were added weekly teaching by Sunday School teachers at the little Methodist chapel in the our little hamlet. Then when I was eleven, I was taken on a Sunday by my parents to the parish Church just over a mile from the farm I grew up on. When I was twelve I was confirmed by the Bishop of Dover. As he placed his hand upon my head I felt a warm glow flow down from my head into all my body. At the time I thought little of it.
My family had done their best to encourage me to be a Christian. My Auntie Elsie had presented me with a beautiful copy of the King James Bible at my christening. Later on my parents had bought me a copy of JB Phillips paraphrase “The New Testament in Modern English’ and two books by C S Lewis: “Mere Christianity” and “The Screwtape Letters”.
On leaving school in 1965 I became very agnostic, verging on atheist, mostly due to my pursuing a career as a scientist. And yet it was studying science that in the end was instrumental in my becoming a Christian. I have always loved studying, so I was overjoyed when, after a period of full time work and part time study, I found myself at the University of London’s Wye College; reading for an Honours degree in Horticultural Science. I started there in October 1972.
Beginning to Understand
After only a few months some of my new friends at Wye had by their arguments and their lives, convinced me that Christianity was worth pursuing. As well as this I discovered a number of my lecturers – geologists, botanists and geneticists were also Christians and I realised that science and Christianity were actually compatible. But still I needed to understand how God “fitted into” His Creation and what being both a Christian and a scientist meant for me in my daily life.
I took those books by CS Lewis and J B Phillips back to College with me. I read them properly for the first time, more than once. It was on Easter Day in 1973 that I nailed my colours to the mast, and a few days later, that I pinned some Biblical verses up in my room at Wye: “My” verses said: “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”. (Romans 8:38-39 RSV). I had given my life to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was the end of the first part of my journey and the beginning of the next. The next part of the journey I have called “Half Understanding” and it will be posted next Monday.
All references are from the NKJV unless specified otherwise.
John Partis
bearing-kingdom-fruit.com
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