BEING HUMAN

Friday: August 21, 2020

Reference text: Ezekiel 37:1-14

Ezekiel 37:3 The LORD asked me, “Son of Man, will these bones ever live?” “Lord GOD,” I replied, “you know the answer to that!”

After reading the text today from the prophet Ezekiel, I personally thought about this question today: “What does it mean to be human?” This sounded like a very philosophical question and for which multiple answers and perspectives was possible. However, what dawned on me was ‘being human is having limits’.

By limits, I refer not to the negative context of “placing a cap on one’s potentials and abilities, for that is hardly the intention. To have limits is to get to a point where your answer becomes “I don’t know”, because if any man knew everything, he ceases to be a man”. Being human is thus rather associated with curiosity, and not just being able to say “I don’t know, but following up with I can still find out”.

When God asked Ezekiel the question ‘will these dry bones live again? He responded “only you know the answer to this question Lord”. In effect, Ezekiel says ” I don’t know because my knowledge is finite,” that is being human. Nonetheless, for different reasons, some people find it very difficult, close to impossible to utter the words “I don’t know”.Some associate them with weakness, but those words actually are a definition of what being human is.

Beloved, without limits, without a cap or without a finite pool of information, we cease being human. So when you arrive at any point in your life where you have no answers, it serves only to remind you that you are human. However, like many other things, those words should neither become an anthem nor an excuse for mediocrity because for all the answers we know not, God knows knows them all.

He has the answers, but have we asked the questions?

#sly