When my teenage son texted me, “TBH” a few years back, I had to stop and think, “What does that even mean?” To be honest (😊), I’ll be the first to say that I’m not the sharpest linguist in the SMS language, but I can figure things out pretty quick with a little search on google.
Here’s one that resonates with my personal life right now: IDK. If you don’t know, it’s the abbreviation for, “I don’t know.” My personal “I don’t knows” go way beyond text message lingo, they penetrate deeply into some of the inner recesses of my heart because, well, I don’t know how certain things are going to turn out. I’ve learned more and more to be content with saying that. To my unknowns, I can confidently say that, “IDK.” Whether it’s what the future holds for my adult children or the way my body will respond to its environment the next day, I’m growing in my ability to release the desire to know—even just a little bit—of what’s going to happen.
So as I get comfortable with my IDK mindset, I’m careful not to have an “IDC” attitude. Because I absolutely do care! Do you know what I’m talking about? There’s a difference between the two. And the biggest difference is that the underlying truth I’m holding onto is that even though IDK, God does. That is something to base everything on . . .that God knows.
It’s called His omniscience and it’s absolutely amazing. Amazing that we love and serve a God who has infinite knowledge, who knows all things, sees and understands all things and will always know everything about everything. We might think we know it all (action tense), and some of us like to try to be the “know it all” (noun tense) in any given room, but at the end of the day—even after our 30 minute or more internet search—we know very little about any given topic. In fact, trying to KIA (I just made that one up, “know it all”), gives us what is called information overload and leaves us overwhelmed, anxious and even despondent.
Author Jen Wilkin writes in her book, “None Like Him,” that we should be cautioned not to be information gluttons, and that, “Our insatiable desire for more information is a clear sign that we covet the divine omniscience. We want all the facts but as finite beings we are not designed to have them.”[1] Now, there’s a counter-cultural thought! We’re not designed to know everything, even if that means you might make a better choice (if you knew all the facts)—the last time I checked, as Christians we were called to walk in faith in our decisions both big and small. We’re not designed to know how things will turn out, even if that means we have to struggle along the way, and make mistakes and fail forward.
How do we know we’re not designed for that? There are many passages in the Bible that speak to this truth, but two in particular have stuck out to me as I’ve pondered the freedom and the power of the IDK posture. The first one is from the Garden, just after the detailed creation of man and woman was described.
In Genesis Chapter 2, everything had been created and declared good. So good (my emphasis added). There was the tree of knowledge of good and evil (vs 9), which the LORD God commanded Adam not to partake in lest death would enter into the scene (vs 16). It is here where we see the God-given boundary of limited knowledge being set and where we must note that, indeed, that it was good. So good. It was good for the man (and his woman) not to know—know what? Everything.
Of course, the story continues and Eve, in her succumbing to the serpent’s cry that she could be like God, knowing good and evil (Chapter 3:5), she and her husband introduced sin into the world, all from the desires of their insatiable hearts to know it all. From this account alone, we can see not only the dangers of disobeying God, but also the simple fact that we, quite simply, need to be content to say IDK.
The posture of not knowing it all is one of humility and that’s what probably makes it so hard. An attitude of reverence to the Creator God and all-knowing Lord of all, which says, “I don’t need to KIA, Jesus, because you are worthy of my trust and my faith and my obedience.” It’s also a humble position to take before others, before people. Especially in our closet relationships. Do you know what peace it can bring, say in a conflict, in the heat of the moment, just to say, “I don’t have to be right right now. Honestly, I just don’t know the answer or what we need or how to fix this”? I can feel the tension diffuse even now as I think about the power that has had in my life recently.
Perhaps someone reading this will try it. And if so, I pray that they would do it under the umbrella of absolute faith in our omniscient God as well as in the power that He gives us through the Holy Spirit. This brings us to the second section of Scripture that I want to share as we contemplate what it means to live in the IDK as a believer.
Acts Chapter 1: The disciples had many questions after Jesus appeared to them after His resurrection, before His ascension. They asked him specifically about when the kingdom might be restored (vs 6), and His answer, I’m sure, was nothing less than a disappointment: “It is not for you to know times or seasons. . . “ (vs 7) He said, but then went on to declare something incredible. Jesus told them something even better, which was, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses . . .” (vs 8). Bam! His followers would receive the actual third Person of the Triune God, the Holy Spirit, who would dwell in them (and us) empower them to walk by faith and do what they were called to do.
To live in the IDK as a believer is to rely on the Word and the Spirit. Those disciples and the other followers went to the upper room to pray after Christ left. And they asked. And just as was promised, the Holy Spirit came. Their unknowns were still not known, but they had the Helper. The Counselor. The Teacher. The all-knowing God who not only knows it all, but knows just how much we need to know and when we need to know it.
The MOTS (moral of the story–okay, I went too far!) is this: To live in the IDK as a believer is to posture yourself under the power of God and to say with full assurance, “IDK” but “GDK”. And close it all out with an “Amen”, a “So be it.” It’s so, so good to be there. IYKWIM.
[1] (Wilkin, 2016)
Jamie Hoos 