Blog Layout
To Know and Be Known
Joe Killian • April 23, 2015
As I prayed and reflected on this weekend’s readings, this idea of “knowing” that weaves through all three really resonated with me. I realized that those of you who read this might know me but there may be some things that you don’t know about me. So let me start in the beginning. I was born on July 3, 1961… Just kidding! In all seriousness I do want you to know about a certain beginning in my life.
Upon graduating with an MBA from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh I began my own consulting firm. Within a few years I was becoming well known. I had developed an impressive client list and had coauthored a book. However in the midst of all this success I was not very happy at all. The harder I worked the more clients I developed, the more money I made. But for what?
Some of the people that I knew started to talk to me about meeting someone new. Being the adventurous type I eagerly listened but couldn’t bring myself to commit to meeting him. Finally, as my unhappiness reached a low point I reached out to this new person. In a moment of despair, I asked this God, that my friends had been talking about, to show himself to me.
It was a Thursday and I was preparing to travel to a National Speakers Association workshop in Norfolk, VA. I was still very unsettled but looking forward to learning from some of the most well known speakers in the world. While they were great it was a little known speaker that really touched me. As she shared her story about meeting Jesus personally, I realized in that moment that God was showing himself to me as I had asked. All I had to do was walk up and meet Him. The talk concluded with an invitation to commit your life to Christ. Resisting a tug of doubt, I went forward and prayed to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I now knew Him. That was 17 years ago and it is an understatement to say my life has never been the same. How could it be? Let’s look at the Gospel to understand why.
Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.” John 10:11-18
I want to encourage you that if you don’t know Jesus personally; all you have to do is ask Him to show Himself to you. When He does, you will begin a journey with God that is…
You’ll have to wait and see for yourself!
The story continues...I'm still working on the pondless waterfall in our front yard. I shared this project with you two weeks ago in Playin' In the Dirt. Since then I've had to rework sections of the stream three different times because we were losing too much water. I am now an expert on evaporation rates and excessive splash, two causes of water loss. This morning I tore the whole thing apart and I'm starting over.
Have you ever watched DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda? I stumbled across it recently and thoroughly enjoyed Jack Black's performance as a bumbling, noodle selling, kung fu enthusiast, giant panda named P o. Set in ancient China, it is more than a humorous slapstick comedy. The core message of the story jumped out at me as I have been focusing recently on the concept of being. Po is shockingly identified as the Dragon Warrior and he reluctantly enters training. The goal of the training is to receive the Dragon Scroll, which is believed to hold the secret to limitless power. Now I don't want to spoil the big reveal but I will say that what Po realizes is the same as what I speak to in the concept of being and authentic identity. So, where do we find the secret to our "power?" I praise You, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works! My very self You know. Psalm 139:14 God knows it; and we must seek Him with all of our hearts in order to find it. As it was in the movie, the answer is stunningly simple. Our authentic identity is already within us. The challenge for Po in the movie was in seeing himself accurately and not the way others saw him. Even his teacher scoffed at the idea that Po was anything more than an underachieving dreamer who overate when he was anxious. Po's problems are rooted in the fact that he believes the lie of his false identity much more than he does his authentic one. Is it possible that you do the same? Who could have imagined that beneath all of Po's girth lived the Dragon Warrior? What's hidden from view in you? Seek God for understanding as to who He created you to be. Spoiler Alert: the secret of your limitless power is already in you. God placed it there and He wants you to be who He authentically created you to be.
Maria and I have been playing in the dirt a lot recently. First we replaced our French drain and then we embarked on a creative project intended to change the entire look of our front yard. My brother Jeffrey and I installed a new front step.
