You don’t think your thoughts. Neither do I. Most of the time, our paradigms think for us.
In Acts 10, Peter’s worldview was under siege. His experience illustrates the four stages of a paradigm shift. Stage one is to close ranks on what you already “know”. Entering stage two, you allow yourself to wonder. Peter’s willingness to wonder about the vision and what it might mean empowered him to progress to stage three.
Peter moved! In verses 21 and following, Peter moved as if. He took action as if the revelation made sense. Prompted by the Holy Spirit (of course, how would he know it was the Spirit?) he invited the gentile strangers into his home, then travels with them to Joppa. Both of these acts violated Jewish law, as he points out in v. 28. In stage three you take action in harmony with the new possibility, even before you fully comprehend what it means. Peter moved as if it all made sense. It didn’t.
Somehow, spirituality these days resembles what I’ll call “sacred stagnation”.
We sit.
We pray.
We wait.
This we do until everything makes sense to us.
Until we know exactly what to do. Until we’re sure we’ve got it right. Until we can’t make a mistake… then, only then, do we take action.
And the Church culture applauds this as prudent, wise, even godly.
But is it?
Peter takes action as if what he saw in the vision were somehow true. “Maybe that voice I thought I heard was valid…maybe not.” “I wonder if that whole trance-vision thing could apply to this situation…?” “I’ll just go with these folks and see if God is in it…”
Peter moved as if … and once he was in motion, God began to act. Powerfully. Clearly. Unmistakably. And, somehow between verse 21 and 28 Peter understands that God is in this. Peter explains: It’s against Jewish law to associate with a Gentile…and yet God has shown me to consider no one unclean, so I came. Why’d you send for me?
The answer enables Peter to connect the dots. He summarizes: “Now I realize how true it is that God has no favorites…”
In John 7, when Jesus’ teaching is called into question, he says: “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own…” Jesus’ solution is first to obey God’s revealed will, then understanding will come.
How often do you wait to move until everything is clear? How much of your life has been lost waiting… What if you were to move, based on nothing more that what you already know of God’s character, goodness, mercy?
As you do, you join the company of Peter, Abraham, Esther, Daniel, David, Moses, Rachael, Nehemiah, and thousands of un-named saints who moved first and then found God on the way.
I invite you to share your stories here.
The John 7 scripture is the source of Nike’s phrase, “Just do it.”