Praying for your own ignorance
(the ability to be comfortable NOT knowing what will happen next)
I am particularly prickly when people insult my intelligence.
There isn’t much that I get feisty and defensive about, but feeling dumb is a sore spot for me.
I’m sure there is something in my past that has led to this particular behavior, but all that matters is that it has led to a reason that I feel such disdain for ignorance.
And I don’t mean when there is no way that you could no something, but when you definitely should have learned or known something and either ignored it or have forgotten it.
Listen, it’s not a character trait of mine that I think is super cool and has caused me many issues with my personal relationships…
…and it’s important to know this because what I’m about to say is even more shocking because of this information.
We are not meant to know everything.
In fact, we should actively be praying for our own ignorance!
And here’s what I mean…
…Jesus tells us, explicitly, that no one knows when the Kingdom will come in full.
So, right off the bat, Jesus makes it clear that we shouldn’t know everything.
BECAUSE IT ISN’T HELPFUL!
More importantly, we should question how much (if any) of the future is already set in stone…and why that even matters??
At the end of the day, we won’t ever know unless God decides to impart some special knowledge to us. So why stress about it?
Jesus tells us multiple times in the Sermon on the Mount to not worry about what the future holds, what we will wear tomorrow, what we will eat tomorrow, whether we will go into such and such a city and do X, Y, or Z. (paraphrase)
So, instead, we should be praying for our ability to be comfortable in our ignorance.
And while that might feel uncomfortable (because we all want to know how things will turn out for us), it’s really for our own good.
Whether the future is set in stone or totally open, not a single one of us really want to know what happens next. Because that makes every decision seem less important, less meaningful.
So ignorance, in this specific instance, is actually bliss.
My prayer for today
Our Father, help me be okay with not knowing what happens next, even when I really wish I knew if everything was going to be okay. Jesus, thank you for reiterating for us that our worries can’t add anything to our life and that we need to rely fully on you. Spirit, point me in the directions you have for me, for us. Amen.
Remember
As someone who has personally gone through…stuff…I know what it’s like to want to know how things will shake out. To know that you will be okay.
And it’s okay to want that, to feel that, and to still practice being okay with those feelings.
You aren’t alone.