I think this sounds right
Have you ever sat a multiple choice test where you weren’t sure of the correct answer? You re-read all the options and then thought, I think ‘C’ sounds most correct.
When I taught English to Cambodian high schoolers I was trying to explain why their sentences were incorrect. Since English is my first language, I speak it fluently but do not always understand why I say things in a certain way. So the best I explanation I could come up with at the time was: ‘it just sounds wrong when you write it this way. This way sounds better.’
Or perhaps you are going somewhere you have been before but you aren’t entirely sure of the way. And as you walk or drive along you think, ‘hmm this way feels right.’
What is it that gives us this impression of ‘right’? And how do we ensure that our impressions actually are correct? So often we put the wrong answer down on a test or we give incorrect grammatical advice or end up lost because our inner sense of right is misplaced.
In the case of the test, if we didn’t learn the material correctly then incorrect options will sound correct to our minds. If I learned to speak English incorrectly then I will likely teach others to speak incorrectly. And depending on how well I know the route to a destination will determine how easily I get there! In each case it is a matter of knowing the right way. To add complexity to this, there are degrees of knowing and with each degree of knowing comes increasing chances of getting it right.
And so it would seem with our life choices – which way seems right? What path feels right to you?
These are often questions we pose to ourselves and to others who are at a crossroads. Should I make this purchase or that? Should I go abroad to gain more experience or stay in my company to gain a promotion? Should I marry this person or keep looking? Should we have children? How should we raise them? The problem is if we don’t have any concept of ‘right’ then really anything could seem or feel right at any given point in time. And we may be faced with the question: ‘do I trust my feelings?’
God provides us with an avenue to know the right way. He illustrates a purpose for our existence through the Bible and in it are visions, mission statements, directions, examples to follow (and not to follow), descriptions, pictures and in some cases, explicit instructions. Just as the textbook and the test questions are not duplicates of each other, so with life the text and the choices given demand an applicable knowledge of one to answer the other. And so the more familiar we are with God and His way, the more correct our feelings about what is the right way will be.
Some people call it ‘feeding on God’s word’, others may call it ‘quiet time’, ‘devotion’ or ‘Bible study’. It doesn’t matter what name you give it, becoming familiar with the Bible is the best way to know God and His thoughts. As Albert Einstein said, ‘I want to know His [God’s] thoughts. The rest are details.’
