When I Have No Idea What God Is Talking About

1 Peter 2:4,5 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house…

I have to admit; sometimes I have no idea what God is saying to me through a certain passage. I read these verses several times and though I think I started to understand the concept of living stones, I still was not getting anything out of it. God what are you trying to tell me?

That, as it turns out, was the right question and perhaps the lesson God was communicating to me. When I do not understand what God is saying, I need to figure it out. I need to read, reread, pray, meditate, listen and ask others what they think. So I read the passage and I read what others have written about it (bible commentaries). I then asked my kids on the 20-minute drive to school and we had a great discussion about it. Whether or not they came up with a theologically sound answer was not necessarily as important as the fact that we were processing the word of God.

Therein lies the meaning of living stone I think. Jesus is the living, speaking foundation upon which I am to build my life and it is the foundation that I am to help my children build their lives upon. God’s word is not a cold, dead language but rather a vibrant, speaking word that has real meaning for my life today. When I start out the day listening to God’s voice, I start out my day with a foundation of God instead of self. When I asked my daughter what the passage meant, she referred to other stone metaphors in the bible and I thus realized that she too had this bedrock foundation in her life.

Jesus is the living, speaking foundation that I am to build my life on and I am to seek him, listening to his voice daily. When I do not get it, I need to persist in seeking him. When I draw near to him, He draws near to me. This is how it is supposed to work so I need not throw my hands up in frustration when I do not understand a passage.

I will still make mistakes and encounter trials.   My kids will too. With The Living Stone as our foundation however, we will have something solid on which to anchor our lives. Like Peter, walking on the water, we will know where to turn when we sink. We will learn to keep our eyes on Jesus, The Living Stone.