KNOWN: PART 1

Known.

Five letters that change everything.

If you start at the very center, it’s a key that can and will unlock just about every kind of sense and emotion any of us will ever feel. When we’re swimming deep in the ocean of searching, wondering, and longing, it’s like the first gasp or gulp of air when we surface.

It’s the ultrasound telling us whether we’re having a boy or a girl. It’s that same ultrasound telling us everything’s ok...or not ok.

It’s the whereabouts of a missing person.

It’s identity.

As we move from the very center, suddenly, we’re introduced to prefixes that give these five letters a bit more cultural volume by which we begin to measure each other.

Well...known.

Un...known.

We often get stuck in this layer and forget to see what’s next because we’re so busy chasing the “well” and running as fast as we can away from the “un”.

But, if we could hold on just a little longer, shield our eyes from the bright lights of our own ego, or let our eyes adjust to the darkness of our own uncertainty, we’ll begin to see something...more...

A reality we didn’t create, but one in which we’re a thread in a masterpiece.

A movement beckoning us and everyone around us.

An invitation that doesn’t check our prefix at the door.

You see, the reason those five letters change everything is because who we are, how we lead, and the path we clear for whoever is next hinges on the crucial notion that we are...known.

Known? By whom?

By our Father who knew us before all things. A God who creates and recreates us in his very image as the particles of Heaven collide with those of earth, and it was good. Not safe. Not easy. Good.

By Jesus Christ who told us we would be known as those who belong with him by our love. A willing sacrifice who experienced the cross and tomb to show us just exactly what being known was all about.

By the Spirit whose holy fingerprints make up the very molecules of our DNA. An intercessor who knows our deepest, echoing questions, and carries them on far beyond where our vocabulary can reach.

We are known.

The broken, the hiding, the champions, and the frail.

We are known.

The dreamers, the failures, the doubters, and the free.

I am known. You are known. We are known.

This means the curtain has been raised, and we’ve been upgraded from better vision to new eyes.

To be known paves the way for everything else. It’s the gravitational pull of belonging and proclaiming. It’s the prequel that finally helps us re-imagine everything else.

If what Jesus himself said is true, that a tree truly is known by its fruit, then that means we are the fruit of a God who makes all things new and beautiful, even the bits we believe are irrevocably, and inexplicably unworthy or useless.

To be known may be the single greatest longing in every corner of humanity, and I believe the second longing is, “Where do we go from here?” A powerful set of bookends can be found to house these longings in the poetry of the king after God's own heart, as is written:

Psalm 139. To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me...lead me in the way everlasting.”

May this be the mark and cry of the people of God.