What do you know?

This week I read a very strange story on foxnews.com (Which means it must be true, right? They report. We decide.) Anyway, foxnews.com reported that a forty-four year old civil servant in France has lived a relatively normal life with almost no brain. (Sounds like material for the super market tabloids, doesn’t it?) It seems this French guy has a rare condition known as Dandy Walker complex, which doctors believe was the result of a surgical procedure that he underwent as an infant, and has since lived a normal life with mostly no grey matter in his head. What a weird story.

Of course, the temptation is to say that I have met several people with Dandy Walker complex but they have yet to be officially diagnosed with the condition. You know the ones, people who when all alone burst forth into a Scarecrow-like song: “If I only had a brain.” There have been times when I’ve wondered if certain politicians in Washington, Buckeye fans, and watchers of Jerry Springer Show have suffered from this condition.

I am sure that there are some (in Ohio and all points beyond) who have wondered if I should be tested for Dandy Walker. Obviously, I do not want to make light of a serious medical condition like Dandy Walker. Most of us have been given ample grey matter by the Good Lord and most of us use it on a somewhat regular basis. Still there are moments if I were perfectly honest, when I’ve questioned the volume of grey matter in my melon. For instance, this spring I purchased a new lawn mower. Lawn mowers need sharp blades, gas, and oil to mow lawns properly, as anyone with even half a brain knows. Unfortunately, I must have agreed with the great theologian, Meatloaf, who sang that “two out of three ain’t bad,” because I promptly ran my brand new Toro out of oil. UGH! Running out of gas is not so bad. Running out of oil is really bad. Where was my grey matter when it mattered? Thanks to Bud Boyer (the champion mower mechanic) and Alex and Ben (owners and operators of the Alex & Ben’s Lawn Mowing Company) my mower will soon be mulching half the lawns on Village Drive again. Bud also promised to give me a lesson in the fine art of lawn mower oil replacement.

Sadly, I admit that was not the only occurrence of my grey matter leaving me when it matters. I have a long list of “brain freeze” moments in my life when I’ve lost things, forgotten things or said completely stupid things. The problem with being a preacher is that when I say something stupid from the pulpit hundreds of people instantly know of my stupidity. I actually said in a sermon once that someone was “smart, really smart. They were smart with a capital ‘M.’” A capital “M”?!? In spite of the fact that I was never a competitor in the Scripts-Howard Spelling Bee, you’d think that the word “Smart” should be in my spelling repertoire. Where was my grey matter when it mattered?

Why the confession to my lack of grey matter moments? There are plenty of things of which I know nothing. There are still other things that at one time I may have known, but I have long since forgotten. And then there are a scant few things that I know that I know. Here’s one such thing: I want to know God more and more. Like Paul I want to pray: “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead” (Philippians 3:10); and like Hosea my prayer for Central is this: “Oh that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him. He will respond as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of the rains in early spring” (Hosea 6:3). I might not know much about lawnmowers, but I want to know Christ more and more. I might not remember where I put my keys, but I want to know and experience the mighty power that raised Jesus from the dead! I might not know how to always say the right things in the right manner, but I want to press on to know him. I want my life consumed with knowing God more and more. How about you?

We have so many exciting things at Central just around the corner—but more than anything, I pray that as a church, as a people—we determine to know Christ more and more. The Lord has given all of us brains; let’s use them to know Him more!