'I Want To Know God's Thoughts ...'
Patrick Butler
At the Pacific Science Center located under the Space Needle in Seattle, I saw a poster in the gift shop. It was of Albert Einstein and the quote attributed to him at the bottom said, "I want to know God's thoughts, everything else is just details."
"Knowing God's thoughts." Now there's an idea. The quote started me thinking. It's a comment loaded with presuppositions religious people can argue about for hours. In the ensuing discussions, the original idea seems to get lost, which is to know God's thoughts. It is literally possible to talk for years and be distracted with discussions on just how God does what, why, under what circumstances and if there are people God simply won't share thoughts with.
I've done that myself. You can get it all worked out, be reasonably confident you're right, engage in apologetics, defending the principles in small groups, and even think about writing a book concerning it. All the while simply forgetting to know God's thoughts and that everything else is just details.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for knowing some details. I regularly ask people to know what they believe and why they believe it, and examine those beliefs from time to time. Details are necessary. But if all those details don't work into some sort of contact with God's thoughts, than what's left? You'd be left with a schematic, a blueprint but little else.
It's like owning and knowing the parts of a high-class race car, appreciating the craftsmanship and wonder of construction, but never getting in and driving. It's like planning a trip and buying road maps, but just looking at the maps for years instead of traveling.
Take another look and just imagine what it would be like to know God's thoughts. It's easy if you try. What would that encounter do to a person? For one, it might stop endless discussions about how it all works (structure) and getting to necessary changes (action).
Why is this important? For one, the root of much dissension in religion - which spills over into society - has many roots in disagreements on how God proceeds and when. Those ideas on when God does what, and to whom have become what some, but not all, refer to as traditions. And some, not all, are willing to think all kinds of hateful thoughts about their neighbors or do awful things to each other for the sake of their traditions. Just ask some suicide bomber in Iraq. This begs the question, "who is my neighbor?" and leads to a multitude of concepts.
Secondly, there is a train of thought emerging that says the world would be better off without God. In conversations with such thinkers, I've been told the idea of God is nothing but superstition, where people imagine something that does not exist - and in reality talk to nothing but empty space at the top of the ceiling when they pray.
The logical conclusion of such thinking is that God believers cannot be trusted because they're somewhat loony.
Some who take that position hope these deluded "God-believing people" would never inquire about God's thoughts (that do not exist) and are affecting our world. Or more honestly, the inner worlds these thinkers are busy creating for themselves. It would make things so much easier they think. Little do they realize how bad life on earth would actually get.
"Imagine there's no heaven," they say. "It's easy if you try. Imagine all the people living from day to day."
God believers have an opportunity to show those thinkers a more excellent way. Ironically though, many believers in God have taken that "imagine" advice and incorporated it into their lives, not paying much attention to the idea of God's thoughts. Then in times of stress, anxiety and trial when the brain panics, they find they cannot access the thoughts they never pursued when times were better. That's a good definition of a tough time.
Others have developed a "beer commercial" view of life. One TV beer ad actually said, "You only go around once in life. You've got to grab all the gusto you can." While one applauds the non-reincarnation view of reality, "grabbing for the gusto" indicates a sort of hurry-up panic contrary to developing patience.
Life is tough. The unexpected seems to happen regularly, interrupting the more petty pursuits of happiness. In the ancient Hebrew text, God's thoughts are described as more than the sands in the seas.
"How precious are your thoughts to me, O God. How vast is the sum of them. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand." (Psalm 139:17).
Now may be a good time to pick up a few grains.
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