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The Mystery of the Lost Sock by Larry Stout
I took the laundry out of the dryer and set about to separate my wife’s clothes from mine. Everything was fine until I saw that I was missing a black sock. I was absolutely positive that every sock had a match when I collected the clothes, when they were put in the washer, and again when they went into the dryer. I checked and rechecked the washer and dryer, and there was no sock there. It just…vanished!
Of course, I did not lose much sleep over the lost sock, but it kept bugging me. What happened to the matching sock? There is something about ambiguity that bothers the human mind. We believe that we have the necessary information, and we should be able to come up with an answer. Instead – there is mystery.
The mind hates a mystery when it believes it should know the answer. Not long ago, my son David was trying to remember a song that he knew as a child, and it finally drove him so crazy that he called his sister Elizabeth to get the answer. The issue was not that important, it just bothered him that he could not remember.
When we do not have a sister to call on the telephone, the brain automatically goes into default mode and comes up with some rational explanation. This answer is not surprisingly one that intuitively favors us personally. This is like the woman who watches her son marching in a parade and comments, “Oh look, Johnny is the only one in step!”
Unfortunately, once the brain has locked into a solution, it becomes difficult to dislodge that solution, even in the light of contrary evidence. One of my favorite book titles is, “Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes,” and this explains why. Smart people are especially prone to believing that their conclusions must be right, and resist the idea that they could be wrong.
Christians are an especially contentious lot, as they have argued about virtually every aspect of the faith and probably every verse in the Bible. Yet, one of the tenets of the Reformation is the perspicuity (clarity) of Scripture. This does not mean that everything in the Bible is clear, but that the essential truth can clearly be seen by anyone who earnestly seeks to understand it.
However, it does not yield to simplistic formulas of faith or empty-headed theology. The knee-jerk reaction to solve mysteries with answers that sooth our consciences will never truly satisfy. Over the years I have been asked how a loving God can send people to hell, how God can choose to save some and not others, how creation can be reconciled with evolution, and hundreds of other such questions. These are mysteries, and the mind searches for answers. But, the Bible does give us answers – just not the ones we intuitively like to hear. And perhaps when the Scriptures are not clear, there is a good reason. There are some areas that simply are meant to stay mysteries, and we have to accept that fact.
Oh, by the way, I found the sock after all. It was stuck inside the pocket of one of my pants. I did not find it for a week until I pulled out the pants to put them on. Take heart, believers! Someday, the Lord will wipe every tear from our eyes and all our mysteries are going to be answered.