Of waterfalls and God

I remember hiking in the woods alone one day while I was in college.  There was a little waterfall about an hour or so from campus that I would enjoy visiting.  I could lay for hours on some rocks below the falls just letting the sun warm me as I listened to the water splash down.  I did not have to understand the waterfall in order to enjoy it.  I could just lay there and savor it.

The top of the falls was about 100 feet above and it was not until after I graduated that I became curious enough to finally climb to the top of the falls to see where the water came from.  At the top of the falls I was reminded about something I learned in elementary school.  That the falls was actually fed by a stream.  And the stream was fed by water trickling down the slopes of the mountains.  The water came from rain that fell from clouds of moisture up in the sky.  The clouds were formed from water evaporating out of the oceans and lakes.  And the oceans and lakes are fed by water coming from the rivers which are fed by streams like the one I was beside.  When I really thought about how the whole water system works the waterfall I was looking at became even more amazing.  It was one small piece of a large whole, and contemplating the whole only made the part more amazing.

We all interact with the world in the same way.  That is, through the five senses: taste, touch, sight, hearing, and smell.  Our senses form a sort of baseline for how we experience the things around us.  If you had no knowledge of how the world around you works, you could still experience it with your five senses.  And as I found with the waterfall, I did not have to understand it in order to enjoy it.  Still, knowing where the water came from did not diminish my enjoyment of it.  In reality, knowing where the water came from only made the falls more amazing and enjoyable.  Just consider that the water I was looking at may have been in the Atlantic Ocean just a few days prior!

What I have found is that experiencing something amazing is more enjoyable if it is coupled with understanding it.  Understanding and experience must work in tandem.  Had I simply stayed at home and read about waterfalls I would have gained understanding, but I wouldn't have had nearly the enjoyment as if I actually sat next to one.  And yet, sitting next to a waterfall after having understood it better helps me to enjoy the experience even more.

I've found this to be true with God too.  A friend recently read one of my posts about a fairly deep theological topic and he called me.  He said, "I read your post.  It was pretty deep, and it made me wonder.  If I gave the Bible to someone who had never read it and did not have layers upon layers of church history and theology built up, what would they get out of it?"  He went on to say that he sometimes questions the value of delving into the deeper issues in theology.  He found that sometimes getting so deep prevented him from simply enjoying God.  I appreciated his thoughts, and as I considered them they made me wonder whether the "deeper" things do sometimes distract me from simply enjoying God at my base level--through the five senses, for example.  What I've found is that if I spend all my time trying to grow in understanding of the deeper things of God and neglect the experience of God, I lose my enjoyment of God.  Yet if I neglect the pursuit of understanding the deeper things and focus on simply experiencing Him, I forfeit some of my enjoyment as well.  The best, I have found, is to pursue understanding without neglecting experience.