The Oasis - September 8, 2021

September 8, 2021
Pastor Dan Hollis

     A few people have remarked to me since my sermon on Sunday that they enjoyed learning some new things about how the Bible was put together, and about the history of the people and the land this week’s Scripture reading was set in. I’m glad there are those who find that kind of thing as interesting as I do, and in my experience that kind of knowledge adds new layers of meaning and keener perspective to the words we see lying on the page. I’m a firm believer that knowledge is power, or—as GI Joe cartoons once taught me—“knowing is half the battle.”
     I love finding out something I didn’t know before, and I love that feeling you get when you learn some new factoid. For instance, did you know that one of the pilgrims on the Mayflower brought 139 pairs of shoes with them? Or that Thomas Edison’s last breath is sealed in a small test tube in Detroit? Or that until 1913 you could mail your children through the US Postal Service? Or that Michael J Fox’s middle name is Andrew?
     Those are all things you know now.
     There’s so much we don’t know, so much yet to learn, and I think that’s one of the most beautiful things about life. From useless factoids to great philosophical truths to an understanding of why you as a person react the way you do to one thing or another.
     We can sit here and just exist, content in what we know (or think we know)… or we can keep our eyes and our ears and our minds open to all the things this world has yet to reveal to us. As a person of faith, I believe that God too reveals new things to us every day, if we’re looking for it.
     Never stop learning. Never stop exploring. There’s always something new for you just over the next horizon, and it might just transform you in ways you never could have predicted.