How Things Work & Seeing

This morning I was thinking about how things work and seeing. On Thursday night I went to check out  a Tinder match;  I thought it would be stimulating conversation to speak to one of those post doc. professor/researcher guys who spends time touring the world presenting his theories to all the smart people of the world.  Besides who doesn't like Chili's chips and salsa?  It's about as non-threatening as it can get.  Unfortunately, our conversation left me feeling exhausted. He asked me to explain how the Tinder thing works, my point behind my writing my blog,  to explain my process when I compose music, to explain why I considered myself a religious person etc. etc. etc.   He wasn't attacking me and I don't think I was defensive, I was just tired of explaining and explaining and explaining.  The more I explained- the stupider I felt.  Not only did I feel like a dumb blonde but I felt foolish- like a foolish little girl.  I know we were the same age, but obviously in regards to brain matter, I was just an baby. As I asked him why he was passionate about his work as a physicist, he responded, "I like to learn how things work-and how things really are."  In retrospect, I suppose he was just operating from his physicist point of view of trying to figure out how my universe works. Funny, even though I shared with him so much about my process, I don't think he really wanted to learn about me or even try to understand my heart. There definitely wan't any validation or appreciation.  It was all pretty antiseptic.  He got to see me and check me out-but he didn't really "see me".  

We can see, but not really see.  We all have problems with spiritual blindness.   I'm trying to emphasize this idea as I teach the 8 year olds today while sharing the story of Jesus healing the man born blind.  As the Pharisees tried to "figure out how it works" and how this man born blind could now see,  they missed the whole point.  They failed to recognize or see Jesus as the Light of the World-or their Messiah.  The failed to turn to him when they had problems they could not fix on their own.  They failed to recognize the hand of the Lord-the man now healed as a representation of the "works of God manifest."  The were so concerned about being smart and right, they didn't recognize God or his works.

While watching a fascinating PBS documentary about some of the scientific contributions of Stephen Hawkins, I couldn't help but view his body as a fitting representation of his spiritual understanding of truth as knowledge of "things as they are, as they were, and as they are to come." Especially in light of his overarching conclusion that there is no God.  How can he be the smartest guy on the planet, the foremost pioneer on studying the universe and how things work and yet be so spiritually blind?  The scientific community will probably always think religious people are dumb and foolish. It is just difficult to explain spiritual things or back them up with scientific mathematical equations.  Besides that-it's exhausting.

I want to see.  I want to see clearly. I want to continue searching for truth wherever it may be.  I want the answers to my questions.  I want rational explanations.  But in all my learning, all my striving to understand how things work, I want to see and recognize the hand of the Lord over his creations-over me as one of his creations.  I want to recognize him as the Light of the World.  I don't want to just "check him out", rather I want to "see" him.  I want to recognize him for what he truly is- The Savior-the great fixer of broken things because he's the only one who really knows how things work.