A Letter to a Friend - Feb 2021

I stumbled on a letter I wrote a few years ago. It reminded me that the algorithm tempts us again. It whispers an ancient question, rephrased for our digital age:

"Did God really say you must know Him through intimacy, vulnerability, suffering and surrender? Surely, you can simply ask and receive immediate answers, neatly packaged in chat windows, waiting conveniently at your fingertips."

Years ago, a friend and brother-in-Christ was wrestling deeply with questions of faith, seeking certainty through pure rational thought. We had a number of discussions, but he was not open. Deeply troubled, I eventually wrote him a letter, urging him toward a different path (I changed his name to protect his privacy) — yes, it's a long letter, but bear with me:

Hi Petros,

If words won't, a letter perhaps?

On two occasions, as we discussed your wrestling; "Who is this in whom I have believed?", you have basically shut the conversation down as soon as I mention the necessity of faith in your seeking.

You seem adamant to resolve these questions with pure rational thought and explanations. If this be true, I ask that you hear me out ... even if much of what I'm saying you already know.

I suspect you are being drawn into the oldest trick in the book. The one Adam and Eve fell for ...

"Is GOD really WHO HE says He is?"

Implying;

"HE is hiding something from you, to your detriment."

"There a side of HIM, that HE does not want you to see."

The liar whispers, "The answers lie in the tree of the knowledge of good and, the knowledge of evil - see, eat, taste and you will know the truth about GOD. Why else would He forbid you to eat from it?"

The lie that you will find the answers to your questions about the nature and character of GOD, in knowledge of good, or in knowledge of evil, is a compelling one. It satisfies a craving the first question ignited.

But, history, nay, our daily existence tells us that eating of the fruit of this tree is the most destructive of paths.

This path is a fools errand. It is premised on the fallacy that eternal truths can be known fully by temporal minds. That the infinite can be grasped by the finite.

How can one expect to reduce the infinite, eternal GOD, into a set of 'knowledge of good' and, 'knowledge of evil' definitions?

How can an emotionally driven, somewhat rational and, entirely finite mind grasp even the most basic of precepts of the infinite and eternal?

This was the essential question GOD asked Job as he grappled with these same questions in the midst of a world of hurt and confusion.

You see, the answers lie not in the 'knowledge of good', nor in the 'knowledge of evil'. They do not lie in rational, carnal, temporal knowledge — they lie in a WHO, the WHO.

The answers lie in knowing HIM.

1 Corinthians 2:11-16 (NKJV). For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

When we have the mind of Christ, we can begin to 'spiritually judge' and know the answers. Answers that can only be spiritually discerned.

Paul gets even more specific ...

Philippians 3:7-11 (NKJV). But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

And so, by faith we posture ourselves to KNOW GOD. The answers you are seeking, as to WHO HE is, His character and nature, lie in the person of Jesus. Not in finite, rational knowledge — this is a deception, an appeal to pride and the arrogant assumption that the finite can know, and there-by reduce the infinite to finite rationale and knowledge.

2 Corinthians 3:12-18 (NKJV). Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The temptation is to look to that which is passing away for answers (the tree of knowledge). But the answers to eternal questions lie in eternity. We stare intently, fixing our eyes, by faith, 'through a glass darkly', ever seeking, ever desiring, ever fixed on eternity. We avert our eyes from looking for temporal answers to eternal things.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NKJV). Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

1 Corinthians 13:12-13 (NKJV). For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

When we abide in the WHO, starting with faith, in spite of the suffering and confusion, we will begin to discover hope and love. To know LOVE.

Thus, the rational answers you seek, will only ever produce temporal answers. Leaving you thirsty for more, chasing the next and the next. Until your life is spent and all you have, are an incomplete set of temporal answers and, to have missed the point and opportunity. Knowing HIM.

Thus finally, my encouragement to you and, the beginning of the settling to my own, similar struggles and journey ...

2 Corinthians 4:6 (NKJV). For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The answers you seek lie in the face of Jesus.

They lie in beauty, not ugliness.
Simplicity on the far side of complexity.

For me, I started glimpsing answers when I changed my focus — I started looking for beauty in the ashes, simplicity through the complexity. Beauty and simplicity became my guide.

And, when I saw ugliness, I started staring through it, into eternity. I started interpreting ugly through the revelation of the Father as lived and expressed in the earthly life and then resurrection of Jesus.

I clung to, "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.".

Trust HIM for but a little while. Gaze into HIS beauty and the things of this world will grow beautifully dim. And then, in that day, patience will be rewarded and, we will all see him for WHO HE IS — fully. We will know as we are known. We will join the host on the sapphire blue sea of fiery glass before the throne, worshiping, having the harps of GOD. Singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb of GOD;

“Mighty and marvellous are Your works, O Lord God the Omnipotent!
Righteous (just) and true are Your ways, O Sovereign of the ages (King of the nations)!
Who shall not reverence and glorify Your name, O Lord [giving You honour and praise in worship]?
For You only are holy.
All the nations shall come and pay homage and adoration to You, for Your just judgments (Your righteous sentences and deeds) have been made known and displayed.” — Revelation 15:3-4 (AMP)

And as all is revealed in truth, we will join C.S. Lewis and say; "Oh! Of course."

There is much more I can say from my own discoveries as I have journeyed, what to me has been a winding and lonely road, filled with confusion and doubt. A searching, an aching and a longing. A road where I eventually started seeing a beautiful sunrise in the distance — the glory of Jesus, our bridegroom and the hope of the whole world.

In a song of Martyn Joseph, I find a fellow sojourner ...
---
Locked in my heart there's a child
Knocking the door to get out
Asking the questions that hurt and
Sometimes there's a question of doubt
I can't pretend that it's easy
I can't pretend that I win

When your search in this life is over
That's when the struggle begins
And if I don't find out the search is not in vain
And if I don't find out ...

I treasure the questions as they rage in my mind
I treasure the questions some day I will find
I ran out of answers such a long time ago
And I treasure the questions wherever I go

Searching Sahara's of sorrow
Trying to understand why
But the journey has brought me so much closer
I don't have to stand here and lie

Over and over I cried in the darkness
Over and over to see
The crime is to sit and not wonder
Renewing my mind set me free
And if I don't find out, the search is not in vain
And if I don't find out ...

I treasure the questions as they rage in my mind
I treasure the questions some day I will find
I ran out of answers such a long time ago
And I treasure the questions wherever I go
---
If cups of coffee are in order, I'm game to be your punching bag as we 'treasure the questions' together.

Your brother in Christ, and fellow pilgrim on this narrow and winding road.

Bradley

I had the privilege of attending a live Martyn Joseph concert as a young man, at what was then Wits University. It was a small crowd - perhaps only 80 people. The context was the ending of Apartheid. I'd just returned from fighting in the South African Border war's Battle of Cuito Cuanavale. I was a young christian and when he sang "I treasure the questions", it helped me process the endless raging questions I was facing. Thank you for your courage and truthfulness Martyn.

The Algorithmic Tree Of Knowledge

Today, the temptation is renewed, presented not in fruit but in the algorithmic promise of endless answers, immediate gratification, and seemingly infinite clarity. Each click and swipe promises to fill the void, simplify the infinite, to unravel mystery into manageable, consumable data. Yet beneath the surface, this fruit remains profoundly unsatisfying. It leaves us hungry, restless, ever-searching for the next bite.

The temptation, familiar yet clothed in new digital garments, urges us again to trust our finite tools to grasp the infinite. Algorithms imitate insight, echoing patterns of our questions, offering reflections rather than revelations. Yet true knowing—the sacred, soul-deep intimacy for which we were created—is not found here.

We stand again at the crossroads, confronted with the same choice humanity has faced since the Garden: Will we eat from this tree of endless answers, or turn toward the One who is Himself the Answer?

Christ invites us away from the noise, beyond the screens, memes, prompts and quick certainties. He calls us to trust, to intimacy, to the slow and profound knowing that only comes through relational communion with Him. It is here, in this quiet trust, that we find what algorithms can only mimic—the deep satisfaction of truly knowing and being truly known.

Let us choose wisely. Let us seek the Answer who walked among us, who still meets us not through queries and clicks, but in the gentle whisper of His presence. For only in Him is our infinite longing fully met.

Pause here, friend. Reflect for a moment. What is surfacing within you—an ache for deeper intimacy, a longing for genuine knowing? Do not rush past this. Let the Spirit gently guide you away from the noise, toward the quiet communion of the One who alone knows you fully, loves you truly, and invites you to be fully known in Him while you "treasure the questions".