Have you ever experienced an insight that filled you with delight?
Recently my husband and I were on a trip through several states in the American Northwest. As we were driving from Casper, Wyoming to Rapid City, South Dakota, we traveled through an area where there was extensive strip-mining for coal. As we checked on the map, we figured we were about fifty miles from the next town called Newcastle.
According to Wikipedia, the expression refers to a “foolhardy or pointless action.” It grew out of the fact that at some point in the past, Newcastle upon Tyne in north-eastern England was a huge producer of coal, “and therefore any attempt to sell coal to Newcastle would be doomed to failure” because they had no need of it.
As we were discussing and thinking about this, my husband suddenly said, “Hey, we’re in coal mining country and the name of the next town is Newcastle!”
At that moment, we experienced the delight and joy of a new-found insight. The fact that the town to which we were driving was named Newcastle took on a whole new meaning!
It’s amazing the transformation that takes place in the mind when it becomes enlightened! We knew we were on the road to a city named Newcastle, but it meant nothing to us—it was just a name. It wasn’t until we learned and understood the significance of the name and its connection to coal that it took on a new meaning.
As I reflected on this little delight, I thought of other times I’ve experienced the joy of “a light bulb experience.” There were several that soon came to mind, but the one that stood out most was the time I really grasped an understanding of who Jesus is: that he is God himself, taking on human flesh and coming to live among his creation.
That insight changed my whole perspective and understanding of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In Jesus, God had became a part of his creation and did for me what I could not do for myself. That insight changed my life.
So often in life, we don’t have the curiosity or the willingness to seek the information that leads to the discovery of such insights. If my husband and I hadn’t wanted to know more about the saying “selling coal to Newcastle” and put forth the effort to learn what it meant, we’d have missed both the insight and the delight.
Likewise, it takes effort to grasp the understanding of who Jesus really is. The fact that he is fully God and fully man is a mystery; but God says that if we seek to know him with all our heart, he will reveal himself to us (Luke 11:10, Jeremiah 29:11-13, Proverbs 8:17).
The beautiful thing about seeking him and finding him is that the more we seek to know him, the more he reveals himself to us; and through this process, we have the continual opportunity to experience the “delight of new insights.”
