Remember the popularity of optical illusions during the 80’s and 90’s? Those psychedelic patterns you would stare at until you saw an image emerging out of the picture? Sometimes it would be a simple Picasso-like line drawing that depending on how you focused your eyes, you could see two completely different images appearing out of the same drawing. Once your brain clicked in, you could easily switch back and forth between the two images.
A few years ago my son asked me if I had ever noticed the pattern of 1234. I asked him what he meant by that and he said, “As in the time on a clock, 12:34.” He said that he and his friend see it all the time and they were wondering how widespread this phenomenon is with other people. At the time, I responded that I couldn’t really recall noticing it. But SINCE then, it seems as though I’ve seen it thousands of times–including during the writing of this blog! And now that I’ve pointed it out, more than likely you will begin seeing it too. Your welcome.
It’s really uncanny the number of times you see it, when obviously it’s only occurring twice in a 24-hour period, just as all other times are displayed. While it seems as though we see 12:34 much more often than we see other random times on a clock, we have come to the conclusion that it is merely because that pattern of successive numbers stands out and is more easily remembered. (The other day I told my husband what I was writing about and just a few short days later he’s already seen it four times! LOL)
There are patterns everywhere when we fully open our eyes to see them. Take focus groups for example: The purpose of a focus group is to gather a pattern of responses in order to determine an outcome–perhaps it’s for a name, a new product, or a new business. They are trying to establish the best marketing campaign for wide-spread appeal, which comes through the most common responses and reactions of the group. The same is true concerning the practice of medicine; a particular group of symptoms creates a pattern of a specific disease. Mental illness is diagnosed by patterns of behavior. And on and on it goes.
Patterns are how things become “a thing”. And the one common denominator among all of these examples is experience–and not just your experience, but the very common experience of many, many people. The common experience of reactions to marketing, the common experience of identical symptoms of an illness, etc.
Let’s apply these common patterns of evidence to our Christian faith. While it is easy to gain knowledge of the Christian faith, it is the experience of living out our faith that makes it so tangibly real. While our experiences are deeply personal, they both confirm and affirm that what we are experiencing is akin to the very same experiences of Christians throughout history! A lived faith is a lived experience. It leaps to life from the pages of history–and that very thing is what forms a definite pattern in the life of all believers: the many experiences that we all hold in common.
When we speak with one another about how God is speaking and acting in our lives, we know exactly what the other person is talking about! There is instant recognition and understanding that is born out of our own circumstances and experiences. In that process of exchange our bond with God and with one another continues to grow ever deeper. Commonality validates and creates connection.
Our connection with God is sometimes proved out in the most common of moments in our everyday lives. Folding the laundry, driving our car, fixing a meal. He whispers His revelations into our hearts and we ponder them. There is a “knowing” in our personal relationship with God that often defies description. We are speaking of God, after all. Yet, in our shared experiences of faith we gain strength through the many common threads of our brothers and sisters which bind us together as a faith community. We know the Word and we do not doubt it. Yet we also have an accompanying knowledge of the experience of that Living Word. It is not merely an historical account, it is the self-revelation of God that leads us in personal witness and testimony.
Just as we collect data for other means to determine patterns–as in the example of modern medicine–if we were to gather every single Christian from around the globe for an interview, an emerging connective pattern would most assuredly materialize. There is an overarching continuum of our collected faith journeys–from Old Testament to present day. I also revel in the knowledge that even if every single human story of God were told, we would only begin to scratch the surface of the magnificence of our omnipotent God. The great “I Am” is the great “Within Us” and the great “Beyond Us”! (Until later, of course.)
If others would only recognize the long-standing reality of our common patterns of experience, that should be–in and of itself–further testimony for the existence of a very personal and loving God. Unfortunately, too many unbelievers espouse that having Christ in our lives is merely a crutch for the weak-minded; that it’s not real. In a manner of speaking He is our crutch–for what is the purpose of a crutch? To provide support when we struggle with balance and to prevent us from falling. So we cling to that crutch (i.e. the cross) because we cannot walk upright without leaning on Him.