Research is Not a Four-Letter Word

There's an amusing scene in the movie Legally Blonde where Reese Witherspoon's character Elle Woods is invited to a house party by a "friend" who doesn't like her very much, so the friend tells her that it's a costume party. Only... it's not. 

Excited Elle takes the party invitation and runs with it, dressing up in an attention-getting ensemble -- bunny ears and matching outfit -- and arrives at the party, which turns out to be a "normal-dress" party. When she enters the room, the whole place stops to look, and you can almost see Elle folding inward as the embarrassing moment crashes over her.

Elle handles it pretty well; she actually ends up having a good time. But that crippling moment could have been avoided if only she had taken the trouble to do a little research. 

Most of us hate research. I know I do; every time I start a new semester, I dread seeing the syllabus and the inevitable list of research papers that I'll be required to write. But the importance of fact-finding and information cannot be denied.

I read John 7:25-44 today. Jesus is still at the Feast of Tabernacles. He has been teaching and causing a lot of conversation regarding His identity to take place. Some people believe He's the Prophet from Deuteronomy 18 (John 7:40). Some believe He is the long-awaited Christ (John 7:41). Some believe He is demon-possessed (John 7:20). 

No one, it seems, has done their research thoroughly enough to truly know Who He is. 

John 7:41 shows us some of the people's judgment: "How can the Christ come out of Galilee?" they ask. Nazareth -- where Jesus has lived with His family -- is in Galilee; presumably, that is His point of origin, right?

The people ask one another: "Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David's family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?"

Jesus can't be the Christ; He's from Nazareth... in Galilee.

Only... He's not. 

Let's look back at Jesus' birth story in Luke 2: "So Joseph (Jesus' earthly father) also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee... to Bethlehem (cha-CHING!!) the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David." Long story short, Mary, Jesus' mother, gives birth to Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem.

Somehow or other, this important fact of Jesus' lineage and its place in the fulfillment of prophecy gets missed in John 7, because the people haven't taken the trouble to do the research to confirm the things they're wondering about. 

They've glanced at the headlines and believed the first statement they see. They don't bother to fact-check. They don't take the trouble to look a little deeper in order to find the story behind the story. They don't look for the truth, the Truth-with-a-capital-T (see my post from yesterday).

We could apply this lack-of-research concept lightly to the news and the overwhelming amount of misinformation available about there, it's true. 

Or we could go a step deeper and apply it to our hearts. How often do we settle for the lesser answer without digging deeper and finding the why behind the summary statement? 

2 Timothy 1:12 says: "Yet I am not ashamed, because I know Whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day (the day of judgment, the final day, the day we all, every one of us, stand before the Ancient of Days, the day the books are opened. Are you ready? If not, get ready. It's going to happen)."

Let's talk about that word: "know." In the Biblical narrative, the infinitive "to know" has been translated in the most intimate sense: the "knowing" that happens between a husband and wife. It's that intimate, physical relationship that is consummated in the marriage bed. To know each other so absolutely that the closest union between two people is completed. No holds barred, nothing held back.

Because I'm nerdy, I did some research into the Greek etymology of this use of "know." Here in 2 Timothy, the word gives the sense of "intimacy, the sight of that which one longs to see, the revealing from behind the veil." Think back to Genesis and Jacob's marriage to Leah: He longed to see who was behind that veil. Granted, in that case, Jacob gets the shock of his life: "When morning came, there was Leah!" (Genesis 29:25) This, though, is a marital "knowing." Jacob longed to see, to know, his bride.

So in 2 Timothy 1:12, that same word: "know" is applied to the relationship between God and people. It's the sense of such-intimacy-that-there-is-nothing-closer. I know Whom I have believed. A reciprocal intimacy is implied: I know Him, and He knows me. He uncovers me, just as we uncover Him.

So rather than settling for what we think, what we hear, the topical surface, let's dig deeper until we know. Fact-check. Research. Dig deeply, so, so deeply into our faith, so that we can know that we know that we know Him.

Unveil Him. He's worth the research. 

What happens if we take only the topical information, the summary, the headline without doing the research? 

We become unstable, because you know what? The next headline that comes out and writes a persuasive story that disagrees with the first headline will talk us right out of what we thought was correct. But if we put feet to our knowledge, push inquiry further, we will know the why behind the belief, and we'll be much more firmly rooted.

James 1:6 says that "he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind... he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does."

In contrast, Psalm 1 talks about the person of faith as someone who "delights in the law of the Lord, and on His law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither" (Psalm 1:2-3).

I want to be a Psalm 1:2-3 person, not a James 1:6 person. 

People often take a "word" or a "theme" for the year when they're making their New Year's resolutions. The New Year is upon us. Tomorrow night, I'll stay up late and watch a modified-because-of-Covid New Year's Eve Times' Square celebration. My theme for the New Year will be Psalm 1:2-3. I like how that sounds, don't you? Psalm 1,2,3. Go.

My delight will be my research.
My rooted tree will be my faith.
My seasonal fruit will be my mission.

Happy New Year!