Great are the works of the Lord,
studied by all who delight in them.– Psalm 111:2
All, who delight in the works of the Lord, includes scientists and researchers. Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of those scientists. You can see his delight in his line of work whenever he talks about it.
It’s quite literally true that we are star dust, in the highest exalted way one can use that phrase. … I bask in the majesty of the cosmos. I use words, compose sentences that sound like the sentences I hear out of people that had revelation of Jesus, who go on their pilgrimages to Mecca.
– Neil deGrasse Tyson
Without delight, what is learning? Children are wired to learn, and in that process they delight in it. Yet when we do not allow children to have agency and learn, but instead do everything for them, they grow up with insecurity and anxiety, not knowing their own selves and not learning to take care of themselves well. This is how it is when we do not try to learn the works of the Lord and only pray to receive, expecting from God instead of learning to use our agency. When we are not open to learning, we do not grow into the people the Lord designed us to be.
Religiosity has a danger in steering away focus from what there is to learn. In many religions, people may tend to hyperfocus on rules. Then, by lacking full understanding of spiritual writings, congregations create their own rules until they create a culture with social expectations, shunning others who don’t know or follow those expectations. People lose sight of caring for the kind of stranger beaten and lying on the side of the road who the Samaritan helped. Religion can coerce people to follow rules taught by men, taking away our agency to explore and study God’s works, which extend far beyond human understanding. Religion may take away from learning to love with the depth God has demonstrated by dying on the cross. But if we choose to strive for learning, religion falls into its useful place as a tool. We can then be like workers whose boss is the GC (general contractor). The GC happens to also be the owner, and his understanding no one can fully comprehend (Psalm 147:5).
When we look at the works of the Lord in nature, in the galaxies, and within our own bodies, studying them with childlike delight, our minds expand and rules become nothing while God becomes everything. Great are His works. Get acquainted with them and be delighted.
Source of Neil deGrasse Tyson quote: Beyond Belief: Science, Reason, Religion and Survival, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, November 7, 2006
Scripture is from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), ©2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.