The Joy of Knowledge

Have you ever noticed that experts can enjoy things far more than normal people?

I’m musically inclined; I can read music, play piano poorly, and enjoy singing. I love good music and good performances. I even enjoy a musical episode of TV shows when they’re done well. The CW show The Flash did such an episode, and it was great. Most of the cast sang beautifully, and the songs were cleverly written. Then I came across a YouTube video of a vocal coach reacting to it, and I realized I was watching that episode deaf and blind.

This professional singing instructor was capable of enjoying their performances on a level I didn’t even know existed. I’m restricted to “they sung purty”; she can detect proper execution of complicated skills and careful nuance. And I was a bit disappointed. I enjoyed watching her reaction, but I can’t enjoy their performances second-hand. I know now they did difficult things well, but I’m still completely incapable of properly appreciating their work because I’m still ignorant.

You’ve probably seen something similar on cooking shows where judges with well-developed palates discuss subtleties of flavor and texture that the average person will not notice. Or maybe you saw this watching the Olympics, in technical events like gymnastics, figure skating, or diving, where the judges see vast differences where the rest of us see one splash looking pretty much like another.

We all have the same eyes, ears, and tongues, but knowledge can allow us to appreciate things on a deeper level.

We can train ourselves to appreciate God on a deeper level.

The more we learn about God, the more we can appreciate what we see of him in the scriptures and in the world. Becoming more and more familiar with the details of his personality, his character, his likes and dislikes will allow us to see him more clearly and love him more deeply.

Some may object that this is just head knowledge and relationships are more than that. That’s true. But they’re not less than that. A relationship with my wife is more than knowing the things she enjoys, what makes her laugh, and what makes her cry, but we’re not going to have much of a relationship if I don’t know those things.

So how do we learn what we need to appreciate God more? There are lots of authors who’ve done the hard work of compiling the “attributes” of God: eg, Knowing God, Knowledge of the Holy, or God Is. These are useful tools, and I encourage you to seek them out.

But I think there’s great value in going directly to the source. Go to the scriptures, read slowly and carefully, and ask, “What does this tell me about God?” The whole Bible is useful, but the clearest passages are also the least used: the Old Testament, especially the prophets.

In the coming months, I plan to do just that, both for my benefit and yours. I want to look at some of those passages we tend to skip over and see the picture they paint of God. I’ve done this in the past in Deuteronomy, so this time I’ll be looking at the prophets.

I think this will make those passages we love to read in the gospels and the psalms come alive in a way we’ve never seen before. This will allow us to see God in the work of Jesus more clearly and love him more dearly. Let’s be experts on God so we can enjoy him more than normal people.


Image via Pixabay