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Spirit Matters: What do any of us know? We aren’t God. · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Spirit matters. What do any of us know? We aren't God. Written
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  by Gerilyn Zavada Novak and Spirit Matters. This article is being read
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  by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett. Each week I
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  write with the intention of applying practical spirituality to our everyday lives.
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  I try to ask myself what is going on in the world
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  and what issues are most pressing to be addressed. Sometimes the ideas
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  and words flow freely. Other times I am knocked unconscious by imposter
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  syndrome. Who am I to write about these things? I am not
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  an expert. I am simply someone who has been a lifelong seeker,
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  is passionate about that something bigger that sustains our existence, and most
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  importantly tries to live out my Catholic faith each day, in whatever
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  situation presents itself. There are experiences I've lived that give me some
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  material to try to make connections with you, the readers. But there
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  are countless other experiences I know nothing about, and to pretend I
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  do would be misleading at best, and actively deceitful at worst. I
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  have, learned through the years the best way to connect with an
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  audience is to write and speak about what I know. And allow
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  the Holy Spirit to fill in the spaces in between. Somewhere in
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  that narrative, readers will find themselves, even if the have not experienced
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  the exact same thing as I have, in the exact same way.
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  For this reason, when I sit own to write, it is often
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  with a little nausea and a profound awareness of how little I
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  know. I quietly ask the divine to take my few loaves and
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  fishes and feed the crowd, so, to speak. I am reminded of
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  the Dunning Kruger effect, which is a cognitive bias where people with
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  low ability, knowledge, or skill in a specific area greatly overestimate their
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  own competence. In general, the Dunning-Kruger effect does not apply to the
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  average person who is aware of their cognitive and intellectual limitations, but
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  to those who somehow think they have the answer to everything. This
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  theory has been in news commentary frequently over the last decade or
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  so, to illustrate how so many national figures and armchair quarterbacks seem
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  to be experts on everything from infectious diseases to international diplomacy to
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  social systems of every kind. Spend a little time on social media
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  and you will see what I'm talking about. There are quite a
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  few people out there who are overly confident in their knowledge and
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  understanding of objectively complex topics. And further, they act as though they
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  know more about a particular issue than those who have spent their
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  lives studying it. I write this column on October 2nd, which is
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  the Memorial of the Guardian Angels in the Catholic Church. His morning
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  I took a look at today's liturgy and it did not disappoint.
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  Today's readings remind us how important it is to be childlike in
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  our relationship with the Divine. Childlike is not The
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  same thing as childish. To be childlike is to live with a
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  sense of humble wonder and
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  trust in God's infinite wisdom. In reference to overestimating ourselves, the first
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  reading today was from the Book of Job. Job had lost everything
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  in his life, his family, his livestock, and his livelihood. Egged on
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  by his friends, Job lashed out at God and demanded answers for
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  why he suffered such misfortune when he had never done anything wrong.
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  In chapter thirty eight, God speaks. The Lord addressed Job out of
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  the storm and said, Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the
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  morning and shown the dawn its place? For taking hold of the
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  ends of them earth. Till the wicked are shaken from its surface.
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  From the wicked the light is withheld. And
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  the arm of pride is shattered. Have you entered into the sources
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  of the sea? Or walked about in the depths of the abyss.
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  Have the gates of death been shown to you? Or have you
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  seen the Gates of Darkness? Have you comprehended the breadth of the
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  earth? Tell me, if you know all Which is the way to
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  the dwelling place of light? And where is the abode of darkness?
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  That you may take them to their boundaries, and set them on
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  their homeward paths. You know, because you were born before them and
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  them number of your years is great. In other words, God asks
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  Job, What do you know about the nature of existence, its metrics
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  and rules, and why are you being so confrontational with me about
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  my reasons? In chapter 43.5, Job sheepishly responds to God. Behold, I
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  am of little account. What can I answer you? I put my
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  hand over my mouth. Though I have spoken once, I will not
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  do so again. Though twice I will do so no more. God
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  has given each of us gifts and talents, and He wants us
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  to use them to build His kingdom of love on earth. He
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  has not given each of us every gift and talent, and we
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  need to remember this. We've each been given a tiny piece of
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  knowledge, insight and or understanding, in the whole scheme of things. None
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  of us know at all, and a healthy sense of self requires
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  that we recognize this. When we are tempted to think we have
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  the answer to complex issues, that it is simply common sense. It
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  is good to remind ourselves that by nature there is a vast
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  universe of interrelated disciplines that influence one another and which we know
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  nothing about. And then let the experts on the matters figure it
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  out. Spirit Matters is a weekly column by Gerilyn Zavada Novak that
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  examines experiences common to the human spirit. Contact her at jayzblue33 at
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  yahoo.com.