conclusions

We are eager...often much too eager...to draw conclusions. We want answers now. This is most likely conditioned by the widespread instant-gratification mentality. We want to understand right away, forgetting that the greatest lessons may take years to learn. There is a symbiosis between our minds and time.

We do not always take time for contemplation. I always thought the faster you got it, the better you were. But true answers to hard questions only come with time, else they aren't really answers. They are, perhaps, mere intuitions that but brush the surface of the answer. The answer itself, the whole of it, is not a part of us.

This, I suppose, is what the greatest scholars in any discipline understand.

Too often a quick answer takes into consideration only a few nuances, when the question itself extends in many directions.

It is a bit scary to me that I apply this instant-gratification mentality to my reading of the Bible. Growing up I mostly thought in terms of "read, comprehend; read, comprehend" - a sort of rhythm I came to expect.

But then I began to notice that what I naturally did was more to read and contemplate...sometimes no more than a few lines at a time. And often a few lines take up days, or even weeks. I usually set out to swallow each of the Pauline letters in one gulp, but I have learned now that a verse or two is adequate. A full chapter is really too much to seriously think about at once.

I understand now too why God gives me lessons and experiences that last years before I even glimpse an answer.

This is just one more incident that reinforces our humble position. We are far from kings of this existence. We are more like very small moles slowly tunneling away at an understanding of reality and truth.