Paul Tripp: I think all of us, all of us, deal with daily mysteries that we simply can't solve. I think all of us could benefit from a little more understanding, couldn't you? Wouldn't it be nice to understand a little bit more about life?

Kate Crowley: Welcome to Right Here, Right Now and today's program from Paul Tripp Ministries. Join us as Paul connects the transforming power of Jesus Christ to everyday life.

Female Voice: I just can't figure it all out. I felt like I had a vision, a plan for my future. I could see it; it was what I was working toward. I would spend about ten years in my career, meet a fine man, and settle down and have a family. But life just hasn't unfolded the way I thought it would. No, no, I don't have a horrible life; and yes, I have a lot to be thankful for, but this is not where I wanted to be.

It doesn't make any sense to me that I am still alone, and it doesn't make any sense that I would struggle with the things that I struggle with. It doesn't make any sense that I've had such rocky work life. I've had six jobs in ten years, and I can't figure out why. I used to love being around people, but for some reason, I've become a loner. I'm aware that I actually avoid people, and yet I complain all the time about being lonely.

I want to be married, but I feel uncomfortable around men. I know they must pick it up when they're around me, and it must make them feel uncomfortable too.

I feel so stuck. I don't know how to get myself out of the situation I'm in, and I simply can't figure out how I got here. I had clear goals that seemed to be good goals. And yet, here I am.

I feel like I'm trapped in the middle of somebody else's story. Oh, I'm confused. I don't know how to make sense of it at all, and I just don't know what to do.

Music: "Cold Day" by Sonya Kitchell

Every morning before the sun does rise
He cries
Then he wipes away his tears
He'll have no fears
And no one will know how hard he tries
Every minute of every day
She prays
That she will be strong
Enough to carry on
But she fears she's wasting her way
It's a cold day in history
One of the coldest of all times
I'm so caught up with trying to stay warm
I forget to pay others any mind

Kate Crowley: This is Right Here, Right Now. Don't go away; in just a moment, Paul shares some simple truths regarding Biblical understanding. And don't forget to tell your friends that they can listen to Paul Tripp on line at paultrippministries.org.

And while you're there, check out War of Words, Paul's book on the power of words. That's paultrippministries.org, all one word, Paul Tripp, spelled T-R-I-P-P, paultrippministries.org. More on "What's So Important About the Bible Anyway?" and today's study, "You Need Understanding" on Right Here, Right Now with Paul Tripp.

Can You Relate to Maggie?

Paul Tripp: Can you relate to Maggie? I bet you can. I bet you find yourself in locations that you never thought you'd be in. I bet there have been turns in your life that you could've never anticipated; you know there have. I bet there are dreams that you held on to for a long time that you are beginning to realize you're never ever going to experience. I bet there are things that you struggle with that you never thought would be a struggle for you.

I bet there are some of you who are confused about your work life. You just never thought you'd end up where you are. You're not at all doing what you dreamed you would do. You know you need to be thankful, but you really don't like your job, and you wonder how in the world you ever got yourself stuck where you are.

I bet there are some of you that are confused about your education; you had a plan for your schooling. You knew what you wanted to study, and you knew where it would lead you, but you never made it all the way through the program. It just seems too late now to complete it all.

I bet there are some of you that are confused about your marriage. you don't know why or how your marriage has become what it has. You dreamed of being married to your best friend. You dreamed of real unity, and intimacy, and understanding, and love. And although your marriage isn't really a war zone, it often seems cold, and you often feel distant from the person you should be the closest to.

I know there are some of you that are confused about parenting. You looked forward to having children; you couldn't wait for the day to come, but now you feel overwhelmed with what is on your plate, and you struggle with much more irritation, much more impatience, much more anger than you ever should.

I bet some of you are confused about your personal life. It's hard to talk about. There may be few people that actually know, but there are things that you struggle with that you just don't seem able to defeat. You've prayed and you've prayed, you've read all the best of the books, but you just feel stuck, and you don't know what to do.

Now here's the point. I think there's a little bit of Maggie in all of us. I think all of us could benefit from a little more understanding, couldn't you? Wouldn't it be nice to understand a little bit more about life?

I think all of us, all of us, deal with daily mysteries that we simply can't solve. I think all of us somehow, someway at some time in someplace wish for wisdom. I think all of us are somehow on a quest for understanding.

I don't think any of us have it all figured out. I think all of us deal with daily surprises, and I think all of us, in some way, wish we knew things that we do not know and wish we understood things that we do not understand.

I think all of us, at one time, wonder why our lives have unfolded the way they have. I think all of us have questions that still lie unanswered. I think all of us want to know things we do not know. We just want to know.

Music: "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart" by Michael Buble'

I can think of younger days
When living for my life was everything a man could want to do
I could never see tomorrow
But I was never told about the sorrow
And how can you mend a broken heart
How can you stop the rain from falling down
How can you stop the sun from shinin'
What makes the world go 'round
How can you mend this broken life
How can a loser ever win
Please help me mend my broken heart
And let me live again.

Why Is the Bible So Important Anyway?

Paul Tripp: Now into our world of confusion, our world of big unanswered questions, our world of cries for understanding, our world of a daily search for wisdom, God sent the Bible, His Word. So I want to spend several programs asking this question, "What's so important about the Bible anyway? What in the world is so important about the Bible anyway?" But before we can examine what the Bible is all about and how it can offer aid to us in our confusion, let's put it all in context, in the context of lives like Maggie and you and me.

One of the most important Biblical perspectives about people is that human beings think. There's a way in which we never leave our lives alone. We're always picking up our story in our hands; we're always turning it over, and we're always trying to make sense of it.

We all do it, and we all do it every day. And when we are doing menial, repetitive tasks, we quickly descend into the cavern of our own minds. We go to sleep tossing our lives around in our heads. We fall asleep without figuring it all out; and when you wake up in the morning, you're still trying to figure out what life is about, and you're figuring out the coming day; and before long, your mind wanders, and you're dissecting your existence one more time.

Now you see there are two things that are true of every person who is listening to me right now. First, wow, this is big - You are aware that your life has not worked according to your plan.

You and I could not have written our own stories. We couldn't have written the story of last year or last month or last week. In fact, if the truth be told, we couldn't have written the story of yesterday.

Think about it, there is literally not one day in your life that has worked in every way that you expected it to work. There has never been a single day in your entire life that has worked according to your plan. Your life has taken twists and turns that you could not have anticipated. Some of those unexpected turns have left you amazed; some of them have left you in shock and grief; some have left you deeply grateful; some of them have left you bitter and envious; some of them have left you feeling deeply loved; some of them have left you wondering if you are loved.

But here's the point: with all of our thinking, with all of our preparation, with all of our planning, with all of our care to make the right decision in the right way at the right time, we're still caught up short. All of us are forced to deal with the mystery of our own existence.

Hey, get this. You and I don't need to snuggle into a comfortable chair and spend an evening reading a well-written mystery novel to be entertained and amazed. We're all amazed by the mystery that's right in front of us - the mystery of our own lives.

Permit me to share a couple experiences with you from my own life that filled me with a profound sense that my life has not worked according to my plan.

The first is an experience I've shared with you; it's getting that horrible phone call that our daughter had been hit by a car as she walked down the sidewalk in Philadelphia. No one would ever plan that. No one would ever want that as part of one's life. But it forces you to face the fact that profound things happen that just aren't part of your plan.

Or I'm in a distant village in northern India, and I'm with primitive, uneducated people in this distant village, and I'm standing there, and I'm thinking, "How in the world did I ever get myself here? This was never part of my plan."

Now, hear what I'm going to say next, "Life never works according to our plan because our individual stories are part of a greater plan." There's a central character in the greater story, and He is sovereign over each detail of our stories. So we all will always live with the recognition that there are turns in the road that were never part of the plan that we had for us.

But there's a second thing that's true of everyone who is listening. Not only has your life not worked according to your plan, but you and I are always trying to figure our lives out.

This starts when we're very young. You know, you remember those unending, mind-numbing questions that the little toddler seems so committed to ask incessantly? Those questions are his beginning attempt to make sense out of life.

Or you know those distorted observations of the teenager that are made with such utter self-confidence? They are her attempt to make sense out of life.

Or those extended lunch conversations between four ladies who are discussing their marriages. That conversation is their attempt to make sense out of their lives. The final dying questions of that infirmed old lady are her last attempt to somehow, someway make sense of her life.

You see, we all function as our own archaeologist, sifting through the remains of our own personal history trying to put the pieces together in a way that makes sense. We all function as our own counselors, sitting down with ourselves and talking to ourselves about what's happened to us with the hope that we can gain some understanding.

We all function as our own private detectives. We search for one clue that will solve the mystery for us. We're all theologians and philosophers. We ask profound life questions. We make profound life observations all in the quest for understanding.

Sometimes we're like doctors. We hope that we can study the symptoms and discover what's wrong so that it can be fixed. We're all historians; we all study the past. We all hope to gain some wisdom for what we are now facing.

We all do this all the time; we literally never stop thinking. Yet our thinking is so constant and so natural that we don't seem to notice how profoundly influential it actually is. So this is who you are. Your life has not worked according to your plan, and you are always trying to figure your life out. You are on a quest for wisdom.

Music: "All Fall Down" by MercyMe

Your word, oh Lord, is eternal, it stands firm
Your faithfulness continues through all the earth
All creation hangs on Your every word
With the sound of Your voice, waters still
You are Lord over all
With the touch of Your robe, sick are healed
And for you Jesus, we all fall down
We fall down
We fall down

A Third Fact You Must Face

Paul Tripp: Now I want to add a third fact to the two facts that we've just considered. Not only has your life not worked according to your plan, and not only are you always trying to figure your life out, but there's a third thing that must be observed. Here it is: you and I do not live our lives based on the facts of our experience, but based on our interpretation of the facts. Permit me to say that again, "You and I do not live life based on the facts of our experience, but based on our interpretation of the facts."

You see, the sense that you make out of life will then determine how you deal with life; the conclusions that you draw, the interpretations that you generate, will shape what you desire, choose, say, and do as you deal with the situations and relationships of your daily life.

For example, if I'm a woman (and I surely am not) and I conclude that all men are pigs, that will shape how I interact with and respond to all the men that I encounter in the various situations and locations of my daily life.

Or, if I conclude that money and power are everything, then my life will somehow, someway be a constant quest for those things. You see, you are not only interpreting, but the interpretations that you make constantly and inescapably influence the way that you deal with what is on your plate every day.

Now, catch these three facts again: One, your life has not worked according to your plan. Two, you are always trying to figure your life out. Three, you do not live life based on the facts of your experience, but based on your interpretation of the facts.

Now you need to ask yourself this question, "Why are these three observations, these three facts or principles, so important? What makes them so important? Why is it important to know these things?" Well, they are important because they tell you something significant about who you are and about what you need.

Now, I don't know whether you realize it or not, but you are a person in an incessant search for wisdom. I don't know whether you've thought about it or not, but you are a person in a constant search for understanding. You see, you and I have been given, by God, an amazing capacity to think. And so because you think, you are in a lifelong search for answers. Because you think, you want life to make sense.

So hear this, where you look for your answers becomes terribly important. Where you search for wisdom will be functionally very significant. So let me ask, "How do you make sense out of your life? Where do you go for wisdom? What helps you solve your mysteries? How do you make sure that what you've concluded is right and that what you know is true?" You really are after wisdom; but how do you know that the wisdom you've gained is really wisdom after all.

(Music Interlude)

Paul Tripp: Isn't it just wonderful and amazing to know that God hasn't left us to figure life out all by ourselves? Isn't it wonderful to know that in our world of mystery and unanswered questions and confusion, that God has given us a guide, the Bible--His Word.

Now let me talk about the Bible for just a moment. I think it's very possible for us to have Bibles in our hands, to actually be excited about them and really not know what the Bible is about. You see, I think one of the things we tend to do is we tend to reduce the Bible down to a set of directions. And the Bible is much, much more than a set of directions.

You know, if I'm lost in the big city, and I don't know where I'm going, what is it I need? Well the spontaneous response is I need directions. But think about this. If all you give me is directions, and I go to where I need to go, and I do what I need to do there, and I walk five or six blocks in some direction, what's my condition again? My condition is I'm lost.

You see, rather than just directions, I need what the person who can give me directions has. And what does he have? He's got the helicopter view of that city embedded in his brain. He can see how every neighborhood touches every neighborhood and every street intersects with every street. He's got the helicopter view of the city embedded in his brain. That's what I need; because if I have that, I won't get lost anymore.

That's what the Bible gives me. The Bible is God's helicopter view of everyday life; and because I have that, I don't need to be stuck; I don't need to be lost; I don't need to be confused. You can know; you can really know. You can have wisdom that can guide you right here, right now.

Kate Crowley: Paul Tripp in finding understanding and grace from the current series, "What's So Important About the Bible Anyway?" on today's edition of Right Here, Right Now.

By the way, true understanding can be unlocked with the right words, and Paul discusses the power of using the right words in his book, War of Words. In it, he lines up how we can speak words of grace and make a difference in a world that's full of despair and confusion. That's War of Words, available at our website, paultrippministries.org. That's all one word; Paul Tripp spelled T-R-I-P-P, paultrippministries.org.

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Be sure and tune in tomorrow for more grace found in the Word of God. This is Kate Crowley; and for all of us at Paul Tripp Ministries, we want to remind you that, in Jesus Christ, there really is help right here, right now.