Knowing

I love this word. To me it communicates what faith is really about. Most of us think that faith is about having a trust or belief. A knowing is really something far greater. I heard a great illustration of this recently. Most of us have heard about the game Guitar Hero. It is a Playstation game that has a toy guitar, made of plastice, hooked up to the game console. The toy guitar has primary color buttons on the neck of it and you are supposed to press the right color button at the same time it says to on the screen. When you do this correctly it sounds like you are actually playing the guitar. Many people say with a straight face - "I am so good at Guitar Hero!" They actually think they know about playing guitar. However, if we were to take a real guitar and begin to try and play we would see that the "toy" is nothing like the real thing. If people, who spend hours and days playing Guitar Hero, would actually put all that time into actually learning how to play a real guitar they could actually become a real guitar hero! So I can know about playing guitar with this game, but I really do not know how to play guitar. Paul says it like this:

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. I Corinthians 13:1-7

We can set every preset on our radio station to a Christian station. We can memorize the scripture and talk about it all day long. We can have all kinds of Bible verses hanging up in our office or our house. We can go to church all our lives, but if we do not love all those things do not matter. It would be like a cymbal crash without the band present. It is like a creaking rusty gate that gets on our nerves everytime we open it. People look at us and say "Is that what it means to be Christian?"

So someone can know the parable of the prodigal son. but if they are angry, bitter, and do not understand forgiveness - they do not really know the story of the prodigal son. Someone can know the greatest commandments quoted by Jesus, but if they are angry at their neighbor or frustrated with a member of their family - they do not know the greatest commandments given by Jesus. Someone can know that Jesus said to take care of the hungry and prisoners, but they do not know until they are standing with someone who is actually hungry or with no hope. A knowing is actually having the understanding, living out the experience, and putting into practice the truths of Christianity. Many people who call themselves Christians know how to live the way of Jesus, but very few know how to live the way of Jesus. Live the way of Jesus. Know the way of Jesus. Let love be action not just a knowledge that is kept in our heads.

Namaste'