Show Me!

While it is not official, the slogan “Show Me” has been identified with Missouri for well over 100 years. There are two different accounts of how the phrase became a popular description of people from Missouri. The first has to do with a speech given by Representative Willard Vandiver at an 1899 naval banquet in which he said, “…frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri, you have got to show me.” His meaning seems to imply that there is a knowledge that must be communicated beyond the use of words, which can be empty and meaningless if they are not backed up with action or experience. The second is a more derogatory use of the phrase applied to miners from Joplin who had been shipped to Leadville, Colorado to break a miners strike, but were unfamiliar with local mine procedures and required frequent, remedial instruction. The pit bosses began to say, “That man is from Missouri. You’ll have to show him.” Once again the meaning seems to indicate that there is a knowledge that can only be attained through example and shared experience in the task that is to be accomplished.

Likewise, in God’s Kingdom, those who are following Jesus are invited to “know” Him and are told that He left us an example that we should “follow in His steps.” Knowing about Jesus and about God is a relatively simple, ongoing process that involves reading the historical and informative material contained in the Bible – a knowledge that comes through seeing or studying.  But there is another aspect to our “knowing” God, and that comes in the real experience of His presence through the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit! In a very real way God “shows” us Himself as the Holy Spirit lives in us. He reveals, through a relational context, the very character and image of Jesus – so that we can actually “follow” Him in our daily lives. Jesus goes to great lengths in John chapters 14 through 16 to describe this uniquely spiritual “showing” process to His disciples. He says that God the Spirit will “abide in us”, He will “teach us”, He will “correct us” and He will “guide us” – all of which speak of an intensely personal “knowledge” that is given to us through a relationship with the living God. So it is totally appropriate for God’s people to seriously ask, “Lord, show me!”

How exciting to be His people,

Pastor David Vanderpool