I Don’t Know

There are only a handful of television shows that I could watch at the drop of a hat. No matter if I’m bored (even Christians can get bored) or just need a “dumb focus” to distract my overloaded and busy mind, a few shows interest me enough to be able to watch at anytime.

Perhaps my favorite is a show called “How It’s Made” on the Science Channel. I first came across this show at a friends house some twenty years ago when he turned it on and said, “Hey, check this show out, I watch it all the time.” From episode one, my engineering brain was hooked.

It’s a show that explains how the ordinary (and not so ordinary) things of our world are made, from start to finish. Cowboy boots, canoes, lawn mowers, padlocks, shovels, toilets, candy, soup…if it exists, then it was made somehow. I’m always fascinated to see the process of production, how mankind can organize complex systems to efficiently create products.

Most little kids ask the question “Why?” Some of us grew up asking “How?” Questions start very young for all of us, as we step into this intriguing world of people, gadgets, places, and concepts. Learning starts so young, and really should never stop until we die. There will always be questions to which our only response will be, “I don’t know.”

God tells us in Proverbs 18:15 that wise and discerning people seek knowledge. We should want to understand “how and why” things happen, how things work, and what God has to say about it all. It’s a gift to be able to ponder, meditate on, and study everything around us. I often get sad when I see elderly people who no longer have a curiosity about the world, but instead carry the heaviness of predictability that comes with aging. I never want to reach a point where my “I don’t know” becomes “I don’t even care anymore.”

Friends, it’s okay to say “I don’t know” when life gets confusing, but we should never abide there. To the best of our ability, we should seek to understand what we don’t know, especially from Gods perspective. He knows the “who, what, why, where, when, and how” of everything that leaves us scratching our heads…but we have to seek out His wisdom today to help understand confusing things clearly.