GMOs and Humility

This year, I spent Christmas with some encouraging friends overseas, enjoying every minute of a second visit to a country dear to my heart: Peru! Some reflections from our time there...

Scrubbing was the task at hand as our team worked, scattered about rows of plastic tables and chairs on the grass outside the "comedor" at the orphanage. We yakked cheerfully while cleaning the dining hall furniture, and at some point our conversation turned to the controversial topic of GMOs, pesticides and RoundUp affecting our North American diet. Eager to share what I had heard, I blurted a few opinionated lines before being gently challenged by Barry: "You can make a lot of money off of fear, you know." I clammed up, slightly disgruntled that my firm position was now up for discussion. Yet as I listened I began to realize how much I'd been thoughtlessly parroting what I'd heard with no real research. The question was welling up in me -- partly due to curiosity and partly because I was still disgruntled -- and I finally worked up the courage to ask, "So, how does one know what sources of information to listen to on this?" The indirect answer that came was exactly what I needed to hear, "Just give thanks and eat it."

It's a simple, two-step solution: thank God for His provision, then partake. Yet how often do we (I?!) run to science, the internet or a trusted friend for answers before approaching God Himself? Isaiah 55:8-9 even explain that God's thinking isn't limited to our ability to understand. Not that we have no responsibility in in learning, researching and exercising discernment, those things are gifts from God, too. But it occurred to me that the conversation was no longer about the ins and outs of things organic and pesticide free -- it was about humility. Trusting in God's wisdom as provider. Seeking His thoughts rather than submitting to fear. Thanking Him for His gifts. Asking Him to be our teacher rather than merely parroting statistics and research. While considering what this kind of humility looks like, two things to consider...

Firstly, that God's wisdom is much greater than ours. (Greater? Okay, so this word may be a tad overused and might sound hollow, but what does greater really mean? More than, better than, bigger than, of increased value in comparison... what else can you think of?) In Job 38, God reminds Job of His supremacy. “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding," verses 2-4. When God directed Moses to lead His people to freedom, Moses hesitated, (Exodus 3-4:13). "You've got the wrong guy!" His excuses seem to say, "Send someone else." But God had already answered Moses' finite understanding and lack of ability when He said, "...Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you,'" (3:14). Ephesians gives us this picture of Jesus' sovereignty in 1:22-23, "And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." Paul, in Acts 17:24-25 introduces God this way, "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything." Yes, the God we serve is infinite and His wisdom is supreme... we can rest in this.

Secondly, God teaches us to trust His wisdom by acting in faith rather than letting doubt or fear cripple us. James 1:5-6 is an oft quoted passage, illustrating the doubting heart as being tossed in the sea. After Moses' initial hesitation to God's call, he is noted to have chosen faith in Hebrews 11:24-29: "By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned." James 2:17-18 further challenges us to step up and step out by putting this trust in the ultimate wisdom of God into action in the choices we make  -- choices that shape our lives day by day. Humility is submitting to God's thoughts and ways, rather than depending on our own. Proverbs 16:25 tells us, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." 

So, did God really bring me however-many-kms across the globe to scrub some tables and learn about humility? Maybe. What response does this call for? Trusting His wisdom and submitting in faith, or as Barry said, "Just give thanks and eat."