Roger Harty: That Is Better Than How

.

A FEW weeks ago I was out for a meal with a few friends.

All was going great until I noticed a large red wine stain on my shirt. Now it was early in the evening and I had no intention of going home to change until suddenly I remembered a little trick that my mother taught me.

I put a spoonful of white wine on the stain with a little salt and went into the bathroom and rubbed it in. All of a sudden ‘Hey Presto’ the stain was gone like magic. Even my friends who had been slagging me a little were amazed.

Now to be honest I am not a biochemical scientist so I haven’t a clue ‘How it worked’ all that really and truly mattered to me is ‘That it worked’. The bottom line is that the red wine stain on my shirt was gone.

Therefore, ‘That’ is better than ‘How’.

We don’t necessarily need to know how something works but it is far more important that it works.

This is applicable to many things in life. For instance if I took a train to Dublin I don’t need to know the internal combustion of a diesel engine, all I need to know is that it can get me to Dublin in time.

Yes I agree ‘How’ can give a certain amount of satisfaction and satisfy the curiosity of the mind but otherwise it is far more important ‘That’ it does the job efficiently.

In order to live a life to the full Jesus gave us the following advice when he said

‘I Am (is) The Way, The Truth and The Life. Come follow Me and I will give you rest.

He was showing us that by living in The Present i.e. His Presence that he would guide us through this world in a stress-free manner,

He didn’t say – I Was or I Will be is The Way, He said I Am is the Way.

At another stage He gave us similar advice when He said “Be still and Know that I Am God”

The significance here is that we will never fully understand ‘How’ it works for us but the Truth is that doesn’t matter as all we need to know is ‘That’ It works.

Just like everything in nature , the tide comes in and the tide goes out, the sun subsides in the evening  and the sun comes out in the morning  and everything works perfectly in harmony and all that matters is ‘That’ it works.

The Message of Jesus works in a similar way but only if we apply it. Once we apply it we know that we can relax in His Presence knowing that He is there for us to guide us through all of life’s difficulties and challenges.

We will never understand this but the Truth is that we don’t need to; all we need to know is ‘That’ it works. How comforting that is.

Our thinking minds will never comprehend this, as it is unable to comprehend the unlimited Power and Love that God has for us.

• Next week I am going to write about — A Problem without thought is a Situation