What MYSTERY Will Teach You About God…And Yourself

Experiencing God is a mystery. Yes, there are minuscule aspects of God that we can understand – those aspects that God manifests to us. Yet, God is far beyond our understanding. As Thomas Hopko said: “God cannot be known. But, you have to know Him to know that.”

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An Invitation to a Mystery 

Over the next few posts, I want to invite you to explore the mystery of God with me. Let’s journey together. This is part of my spiritual journey that I’d like to share with you as my companion.

We will go places that are enlightening and frightening. New territories will be explored. Old territories will be travelled but seen with different eyes. Since much of this journey is unknown to us, we will follow the guidance of a seasoned traveller, Meletios Webber. Dr. Webber has a doctorate in psychological counseling and has experienced a relationship with God dating to 1971. He has served God as a counselor, teacher, monk, pastor, and writer while living in Greece, Great Britain, Montana, California and the Netherlands. He is a good and trustworthy guide for us.

Most of what I will write about comes from his writings. I know little of “mystery.” Mystery, which is the presence of God Himself, challenges everything within me. Yet it is where God has taken me on my journey. Again, I invite you to come along.

An Introduction to Mystery 

The word “mystery” points to something that can’t be described. It is something that “lies beyond the place where the mind can make sense of things.” So, how do we navigate within this mystery? Dr. Webber writes:

In everyday English, the word “mystery” implies a puzzle to be solved, a conundrum to be unraveled. The idea is that if you think about a problem long enough, you will find a solution….[In classical Christianity] on the other hand, a mystery is an area where the human mind cannot go, where the heart alone makes sense – not by knowing, but by being. The Greek word ‘mysterion’ leads you into a sense of “not-knowing” or “not-understanding” and leaves you there. Having arrived, all you can do is gaze and wonder; there is nothing to solve.

As you read those words, does something resonate in your heart? Do you feel yourself being drawn to God? Do you sense a longing for God? Do you want to “gaze and wonder” in the presence of God?

Pause, and re-read that paragraph again. Let those words invite you into Mystery.

Comment below about your experience of reading these words. Do you more deeply long for God? Share your thoughts or questions.

Dr. K