What makes life worth living is knowing that one day you'll wake up and find the person that makes you happier than anything in the whole world. So don't ever  lose hope and give up, everything turns out okay and the good guy always wins.


NOBODY KNOWS....... BUT WE ARE KNOWN 

Psalm 137

Pastor Nyamacha could tell by the look on Nyokabi’s face that she was uncomfortable. As she came up the steps onto the streetcar and sat opposite him, he could see that life was hard. Particularly so, because she was no more than 13 or 14 years old and clearly, to use the biblical phrase, "with child." There was a certain look of despair on her face as she sat there and stared at Pastor Nyamacha.

As they rode along Kimathi Street, Pastor Nyamacha began to think about this young woman and her life. He wondered what others must say about her or thinks of her. Would some see her as a pariah, ashamed of the misfortune that had ruined her life? Would some see her as a heroine, brave, ready to embark on a new path and bring into the world a new life? Was she belittled by her friends, ostracized by her family or loved and embraced by those who know her? He sat there, gazed into her eyes and wondered.

He wondered what she thought of herself. Was she riddled with guilt? Was it an accident, an unavoidable mishap? Was it something that would affect the rest of her life in a negative way? Was she full of joy? Was she proud? Was she glad to be bringing a new life into the world? Was she full of despair because of the unknown and the daunting challenges of motherhood? Pastor Nyamach sat there, gazed into her eyes and wondered what she thought of herself.

He even began to imagine a biography of this young woman as every facet of her life started to unfold in his imagination, Pastor Nyamacha eventually wondered what her new life would be like with her child and what the life of the child would be like as it evolved and grew. He sat there, gazed into her eyes and he wondered what he thought of her.

Then Pastor Nyamacha realized that he knew nothing about her. For all his speculations and meandering thoughts, he had no sense, no idea what she was really like. And indeed, that goes for so much of human existence and human relationships. Even those with whom we are the most intimate in our lives, those to whom we're married or with whom we've lived for a long time, our spouses, our parents, even our children. We think we know what they are really like. We think we know what they are thinking. We try to understand, but deep down we don't really know.

Indeed, if we are really honest, we don't really know ourselves either. Oh, we delve into our minds and our souls. We try to understand what we are like. We think we know ourselves, and then all of a sudden, out of the blue, we'll do something that seems so contrary to our own vision of our character. As the Apostle Paul said in Romans, "The good that I wish to do, I do not." We surprise ourselves.

We live in a world that thinks that it knows, thinks that it understands. We make huge decisions on the basis of our apprehension of the other or of ourselves, when in fact it is so limited. We know so little. Psalm 139 is one of great introspection. The psalmist looks at himself, but rather than saying that he knows himself, he makes a most dramatic statement. He talks not about the fact that he knows, but that he is known. He talks about the omniscience of God - that God knows everything. He talks about the omnipresence of God - that God is everywhere. And whether it is God's knowledge or God's presence of him that is greater than his knowledge of himself, above all things there is a Knower and the psalmist is known. He is not wrapped up in what he knows, but is in wonder and awe that he is known.

You might think you know, but there is someone - something - who knows you and who knows the world. There is a divine Knower. Through that divine Knower reality takes shape. Through that divine knower the world and our existence finds a new form, a new reason for being. Look at how the psalmist describes it. He says that God knows our very thoughts. He says: "Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You perceive my thoughts from afar. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely."

I've often wondered about that and thought to myself: "Lord, if you know what I'm going to say before I say it, it would be nice, once in a while, for you to stop me from saying something stupid! Before I say that unkind word, make that judgment or utter that erroneous statement." It would be nice. But God doesn't work that way. We are not automatons. We are not robots. Nevertheless, God knows our thoughts. God knows them before we ever express them. For God searches us and knows us better than we know ourselves. God knows, then, our conscience. God knows our motivation.

At the heart of moral, social and ethical problems, at the heart of the relativism of our day and age that says there is no right or wrong or no truth, is the fact that the world has forgotten that there is a Knower, who knows our thoughts, who knows our motives and intentions. And, it seems to me, one of the purposes of the church is not to tell us how we should act and to prescribe for us some moral code, it is to remind us that at the depths of our knowledge of ourselves is a God who knows what we're thinking.

It is important also to know that God also knows your needs, your anxieties and your concerns. God knows your heart. God knows what you really believe to be true. For those who are anxious and concerned about the future, there are these words from the psalm "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts."

When we think that nobody understands what we feel, that nobody appreciates the deep thoughts in the recesses of our soul and our psyche, the psalmist reminds us that there is one who knows - the Knower - Almighty God. We're not alone. He not only knows our thoughts, He knows our very existence.

The psalmist said: "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." In other words, you made me. I'm yours. Human beings are wonderfully made in the image of God. Oh, we're fallen, yes. We make mistakes, yes. But we're known.
 

God not only affirms our existence, He knows our location. One of the most glorious parts of the psalm: "If I ascend to heaven, thou art there! If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there!" Like Job, there is this sense that no matter where I am God knows me and I cannot escape God's love. "If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea..." In other words, from the beginning of the day, when the sun rises in the east and the birds begin to soar, to the end of the world (remember, they believed that the world was flat) when the sun went into the sea at the end of the day, you're there. "Even the darkness is not to thee, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with thee."

Whether it is day or night, then, God is there. You see, one of the great and sad realities of life is that we believe God is only there when the sun rises. We only believe that God is there when we are good enough to ascend to heaven. We believe that God is only there in the daytime. The Bible asserts that even when we are not worthy of God, God is there. That even in the darkness, God is there. At the end of the day, God is there. We cannot go anywhere without God, without the Knower, who knows where we are.

All of this depends on one thing - faith. We really do have to make a statement of faith: that we believe that there is a Knower and we are known. It is that statement of faith that becomes the centre of our lives and the foundation for everything else that happens.

An Arab prince once told a story about a Persian general. The Persian general was about to execute a spy. As was his custom, the general gave the spy a choice: "Either you are to be executed by a firing squad or you are to open this black door." The spy pondered both options for a long time and responded: "I will be executed by a firing squad." And so he stood before the firing squad and was executed. The aide to the general asked: "What is behind that black door?" The general said: "Freedom." The aide said: "Well, why did he choose to be shot?" The general responded: "People will always choose the known over the unknown."

We'll choose the way our experience tells us rather than take a leap of faith. For, in the leap of faith is the unknown. So many of us just hold on to what we know. We live our lives by what we know. We do not open the door to the freedom of knowing that we're known and that in the knowledge that we are known comes life.