Motivational speaker John
Maxwell tells the story of professional football quarterback legend Ken
Stabler:
One day when the Raiders were in
Oakland, a reporter visited their locker room to talk to Ken Stabler. Stabler really wasn’t known as an intellectual, but he was
a good quarterback. This newspaperman read him some English prose:
I would rather be ashes than dust.
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant
blaze than that it should be stifled by dry rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in
magnificent glow, than a sleepy, impermanent planet.
The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.
After reading this to the
quarterback, the reporter asked, “What does this mean to you?” Stabler immediately replied, “Throw deep.”[1]
I have often thought about this
story since I first read it thirty years ago.
It surfaced again this past Sunday in the Bible Study time. Ken Stabler and the Oakland Raiders had an
offense that believed in scoring often and quickly. You cannot do that three yards at a
time. Long (“deep”) passes for
touchdowns were expected in Raiders’ games; that expectation was rarely disappointed! Quarterback Ken Stabler knew how to throw
deep.
The lesson on Sunday was Apostle Paul’s version of going
deep with God.
But as it is written, What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no
human heart has conceived—God has prepared these things for those who love him.
Now God has revealed these things to us
by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of
God. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10
The writer[2]
of the lesson’s commentary made the point that while we cannot know God exhaustively
(particularly due to God’s inexhaustive nature), He has made Himself available
for us to know Him truly.
We can know God through Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, who came to
us, lived with us, died for us, rose from the grave to conquer sin’s death grip
on us, and lives eternally with arms stretched open to receive any of us who
will come to Him.
In this simple encapsulation of the Gospel, we find the deep
(or secret) things of God. Prophet Isaiah
said that God said:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your
ways are not my ways.” This is
the Lord’s declaration. “For
as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah
55:8-9
So, what are these “depths of God”? There’s no way to adequately express them,
but, like many inexpressible issues, sights, and thoughts, we know them when we see them.
I truly believe that the deep things of God (unknowable
to, and undefinable by us at present, in our limited human knowledge) are at
work in everything that happens. They
are active in a child being born, a murder, the stock market, earth’s plates
shifting, and my stomach growling at lunchtime.
It’s what leads us to believe God is “in” everything, even though we
cannot comprehend Him exhaustively! We
cannot see, but God invites us to know!
For You Today
Get to know Him…Throw Deep!
[1] Title and Other Images: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The Christian Standard Bible©
[1] John
Maxwell, Be All You Can Be (Victor, 1987), p.132
[2] Sam
Crouch, Bible Studies for Life (Adult Leader Guide), Lifeway Christian
Resources, Brentwood, TN, p.101
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