It has been a whirlwind. I don’t know where to begin. On the worst days, it felt like people expected the impossible: answers when there were none, energy when we had none, and then when we were at our very lowest, flawless grace in the face of criticism. Things changed so incredibly rapidly that it felt like we were always trying to catch up: there was always more information to communicate, another video update to shoot, another long text to be sent to the team, another Zoom meeting that should happen. We keenly felt our physical, mental, and emotional limitations (and our lack of years of leadership experience). Trying to intentionally pick and choose to focus on certain aspects of the situation meant knowingly dropping other balls that seemed almost equally critical. (The emotional weight of that alone was pretty taxing.) And then there was the aftermath of not having had that conversation, writing that email, looping that person...
Some of my very favorite stimulating conversations have centered around this question, “Was Jesus, in His earthly, human-God state, all-knowing?” Without exception, everyone so far has responded definitively, “Yes!” Because “He knew what was in their hearts”, etc. I press a bit further, “Was that inherent knowledge, or revealed to Him in the moment?” and a lively discussion ensues. Several years ago, I sat in a Bible class under a teacher who both had extensive knowledge and who had an obvious experiential relationship with God. One day, as I sat in wrapt attention, he made a statement that stirred some real questions within. He was talking about Jesus in his time on earth and he said, “Imagine an expert at the highest level in whatever field you’re in [I was in healthcare, imagining a brain surgeon]...Jesus had that knowledge.” I doubted it. I raised my hand. “What if, instead, Jesus “all-knowing” powers were more about his connecti...