Over the years of my life, as the strands of grey hair and wrinkles continue to both teach me and tease me, I like to believe I am becoming a bit wiser. It often seems though, the more I know, the less knowledgeable I find myself to be. My views ever change, the one before being refined or completely thrown out. Each change brings on that feeling of loss and gain, a sadness and a joy.

At some point, it is important for all of us to be humble and learn to be okay with saying "I don't know" or "I can't be for sure." It is a lessening of our own egos to give up opinions. It gives us permission to always enrich our understanding and not have to expend energy defending what we already "know." We can still be believers, as we have to believe something to walk the Earth, but we can change our beliefs as well, as new knowledge comes in. Our permission to change is one we grant out of love. Fear takes away our permission to explore, perhaps to maintain relationships and intimacy, or perhaps in denial of who we really are or how we are living.

In Greek, "Know Thyself" was inscribed on at the Temple of Apollo, a god who had the ability to heal. The saying encourages us to explore life itself-our own and that of the universe. Socrates said that a life lived unexamined is one not worth living. In our examination, we become more conscious and more loving, and thus find more meaning, value and joy in life.
But we can go too far, ever examining and not living. We can never get to infinity or the end of a rainbow, so we have to be satisfied with not knowing it all. Instead we have to satisfy ourselves with the exploration itself for we can never get there. And there is joy too in not knowing it all, for if we did know the nature of God or the Universe or ourselves, there would be a total collapse, and then what left would there be to explore.

Take joy in living in the mystery and when you feel overwhelmed in not knowing, allow yourself to know less. For in the end, the only thing we really need to know, is to remember to love.And this teaches me that as I wrestle, whether I know the name of the foe or not, I assert, "I'm not going to let you go until you bless me."

Prayer