SYNIEMI

  “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.” Mathew 13:16

    The Greek word for understand is SYNIEMI. (No clue how to pronounce it.) The word means: to put together; to assemble the pieces. It can just happen to us as a gift, but most often is the result of us doing focused, concentrated, mental work.

   I feel concentrated mental work, what I call a Triple T, always ends up with finding the gift even if it isn’t the gift I was expecting. It is those “Ah-Ha!” moments that send shivers down my spine. It may not happen right away. Sometimes it takes some wading through the muck. Or, to remain faithful to the parable of Mathew 13, it takes a lot of weed pulling, tilling the earth, and fertilizing before anything grows.

  But the thing about gardening, there is a whole lot of wait-n-see. Pausing. Anticipating. Giving planted seeds space and time to grow.

  Digging up a seed to see if it has sprouted simply doesn’t work.

  Except for a grade school experiment, where a bean seed was placed in a jar against some wet paper towel, the events underground have an element of mystery.

   The greatest mystery is how the seed gets “turned on”. What is the spark that causes it to give up its life in order to create life? Yes, seeds die. The nutrition they have within is enough to sustain a young plant until a leaf or two opens above ground to turn sunlight into sustenance. By that time, the seed is a shriveled husk that falls away. Its purpose fulfilled.

  Which takes me back to the idea of SYNIEMI, the quest for understanding…

  I’ve hit an obstacle while creatively exploring the Lazarus Story. Most of it has been fleshed out but I’ve reached the point where Jesus will return to Bethany to do His miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. There has been a great deal of reluctance to explore or even presume to know why Jesus was troubled, angry, why He wept. For many days, I’ve pondered, wondered, opened my heart for a glimmer of understanding that could be incorporated into this part of the story.

  There have been wrestling matches with pride, insecurity, doubt, reluctance, fear, more insecurity…”What if I am wrong?” kind of things. Thorns in the flower bed.

  Or maybe I am missing the point. If my faith is a seed, God’s Word is the soil.  Maybe I don’t know Jesus well enough and this is an open door to further explorations, further revelations, more quests to SYNIEMI, to understand. Maybe that’s why I am “stuck” because there is something waiting, some “Ah-Ha!” moment, just around the corner.

  P.S.  There has been a massive change in my life through this process of meditating on God’s word. I will even go as far to say there has been a paradigm shift in my thinking and attitudes. I go to bed, anticipating what delights, what insights, what treasures will unfold with each new blog post. Even the thorns are part of it. It’s like every night has become Christmas Eve.

  By being present with God, He has opened my eyes and mind to a future of limitless possibilities. A gift I have never known.