Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 20. Asking God for Insight (aka cry aloud for understanding)

(click here to listen now)

Hello human.

When we moved back to New York City in 2018 I became enamored with photography, telling a story through a photo, capturing the lighting of a beautiful moment. I had so many points of inspiration in such an amazing City, and then, coupled with the Outer Banks. That North Carolina sky doing a little tango with the Atlantic tide and tempest. Well, it was enough.

So, I found myself looking for THE SHOT, all the time, in every moment, at the risk of actually missing the moment. I became absorbed with framing those moments, along with millions of other people who had taken on the visual pursuit of life worth capturing.

I have a strong visual eye for the frame. I was a choreographer for many years. I suppose this helps. To capture something visually that endures beyond that moment.

Photography is not my craft. I say that having known and worked with ridiculously creative photographers—people who have studied this art, dived deep into the craft, who have put their signature on it. Way beyond the current smart phone universe of filters, gimmicks and what could be called color mockery. I am not saying you don’t get great photos—I am sure you do—but how many of these slang terms photographers use do you know?

1. Blown Out
2. Blue Hour
3. Bokeh
4. Catch Light
5. Chimping
6. DOF
7. Glass
8. Golden Hour
9. Gobo
10. HDR
11. High Key
12. Histogram
13. Hot Shoe
14. ISO
15. Low Key
16. Nifty Fifty
17. Prime
18. RAW
19. Scrim
20. SOOC
21. Spray and Pray
22. Tonal Range
23. Uncle Bob
24. Underexposed
25. White Balance

This was a quick list in a blog post by Jeff Rojas, an American Photographer and Author based in New York City. https://www.sajorffej.com/blog  Thank you Jeff.

What taking photos represents for me is embracing insight. Getting a closer look at life’s meaning. Zooming in on the challenge in front of me. Exposing its grit and grain. Zooming out on the good that will grow out of it.

A Strong Spiritual Eye

What I want is a strong spiritual eye. I share this because my pursuit of a certain perspective through photos—

deepened my understanding of seeking a consistent daily presence of that worthy moment. And it has been a pursuit for sure:  I currently have 21,000 photos and nearly 900 videos.

Ansel Adams said, “A good photo is knowing where to stand.”

So now, this is an invitation to step through your world with a hyperzoom lens that only your Creator has—to capture the infinite WHY you are on His earth.

Here comes the affirmation:  If you treasure God’s perspective and seek insight… you will get THE SHOT. Every day is full with His presence.

A spiritual life is knowing with whom to stand. All the comfort we seek from God for our worry, anxiety, pain, heartache, you name it, is in His nature. Seeking insight is not some high-brow gesture, spiritual tangent, or whim that doesn’t address the immediate pressures of life. It is the way we learn to take the God shots that give our spiritual character the depth and breadth of His love.

The Proverbs are popular to those who seek. Wisdom, yes. But those who seek, period.

One passage today, gives such depth, and clear direction.

Proverbs 2:3-5  indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Call Out and Cry Aloud

This Proverb says the first step is to ask for it:  insight. Then, with insight in hand, take it up a notch and cry so others can hear you ask for understanding. Affirm your witness.

I have to name what I do. I have always been that way. As a child I knew what I wanted. As an adult I know what I want. Affirmation is self-clarifying. But it is my experience that people do not know what they want. It’s as likely they know what they don’t want, and/or they know what the latest “wants” are that the masses are following.

What is the driving insight that I want? I want insight into God’s nature – I am naming this, and I often get frustrated with not understanding His ways, His path, the light He shines on my path. Can’t He shine it a little farther out, so I can see MORE of the path? I think I would understand more if I could see MORE. There is a reason this is not true. That I will not see MORE. But not in this episode.

Search as for Silver; as for Hidden Treasure

The second step is to get clear on my commitment to seeking his understanding, to search for it with my full heart, to invest in the search with a value that surpasses the enduring qualities of silver or the persistent pursuit of hidden treasure. That I don’t know where it is, but I want to find this thing of value so much, I will look in places not seen. Hidden. His Word is a book of hidden treasures for those who call out for insight. Consider this: we are sharing one scripture in Proverbs that goes into deeper and deeper water.

Fear of the Lord

When I do what King Solomon professes in Proverbs 2 —call out for insight, cry aloud for understanding, search as if for hidden treasure, I will then have an understanding of the fear of the Lord. Ok. The word “fear” concerns us, right? The Greek word for “fear” is fear of God, reverence, piety. I also ran across the word “honor” used as well as “outward manifestation.” Out of all the references in God’s Word about fear, the one I turn to is Psalms 111:10 which says that “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

In my reading, I found that the Bible shows examples of fear gone wrong. Consider two passages:

James 2:19

“You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”

The demons know God’s sovereign power. They fear it, yet deliberately keep falling away. Belief that there is one God is not enough.

And a second passage:

Matthew 25:25

The unprofitable servant was corrected for being wicked and lazy after he made the excuse, “I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground” instead of using it productively.

 

This is not unlike having a boss you are always afraid of. I have worked with people who emotionally and psychologically catered to the consequences of their actions, if perceived as “wrong” by the boss. They were scared of their bosses’ reaction instead of taking some time to understand what was important to that leader, in other words, understand their boss’ nature. It’s easy to be anxious about that. Consequences can be immediate. It’s easy to feel the kind of fear that can paralyze you. Upon starting one of my career positions, I came home and told my husband, “I will either be fired in two weeks, or won’t know how to get out of this in 10 years if I don’t get serious about understanding who I am in all this right now. As it turned out, I was there 6 years, and left when God cleared the way to an amazing career experience with “family first” as my guide.

My best earthly example of how I fear my God, is when I stand on the Atlantic coastline, at high tide. One day in December the tide was coming in so close to the sand dunes, I wasn’t willing to continue along the coast line. I watched my husband and dog walk on, but I stood still.

So beautiful, powerful, and I was so full of reverence for a Creator who could sweep me into the ebb and flow. I stood still in honor.  A Creator who could send me out to His sea, who can at any moment bring me face to face with my Savior. It is his world—He has my heart, my life in his hands. He has it all in His hands.

I fear my God for what he can do—for his power, his sovereignty, his reign, things I do not have on my own, but I do not fear for how he loves me.

This I know first-hand.

Find the Knowledge of God

The final promise in this passage is that if we do the first three things, we will “find the knowledge of God.

How is knowledge defined?  Perception, skill, discernment, understanding, wisdom? How is it possible to align with what God knows? The first thing that comes to mind for me is “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”…

According to Jeremiah, it starts with a commitment to seek understanding.

Jeremiah 9:23 – 24

This is what the Lord says:

“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
    or the strong boast of their strength
    or the rich boast of their riches,
²⁴ but let the one who boasts boast about this:
    that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
    justice and righteousness on earth,
    for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.

 

So, the Lord told Jeremiah that all our earthly pursuits are not for boasting, not even the wisdom of the wise.

But like Jeremiah, I am told to boast that I have the understanding to know my Lord.

We are approaching six weeks from Good Friday. Some know it as Ash Wednesday, but the important thing to embrace is that this timeline marks our journey to prepare our hearts for gratitude of what Jesus came to do.

Part 2 of Proverbs 2:3-5 follows in episode 21, to consider this: When we “find the knowledge of God” how do we know Him better?