Some young people have begun their Christian walk but gave up along the journey. One youth gave the reason, “God is not there.” When friends called for her explanation, “God is absent not that He doesn’t exist,” she elaborated. Another one in the group lamented: “I have always prayed to God but he usually comes late.” The third had this to say, “I have a problem with God, I don’t fathom Him. What he requires of me is confusing.”
God’s not there. God’s always late. God’s confusing. These young people lament.
To this young people Christianity is a paradox. Jesus is the great physician but most of Christians are sick. We talk of Jesus who is able to deliver us from all the problems; yet, Christians are going through numerous and monumental problems. Paul crowns it when he says: “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
This is a paradox: a situation that poses to be true and good, and wrong and bad at the same time. While irony is a situation which appears different from what it means. Example, you appear to be wise but you’re a fool. Jesus said: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Christianity is a paradox, since it’s founded on the same. Jesus is the lamb and the lion at the same time. Jesus is the son of God and he is God at the same time. For this to be clear let us go to Calvary: God does not die but on the cross he died. Indeed Jesus said that he had power to lay his life (die) – he was not forced to die in place for humanity – he died on his will, and he had the power to take his life a gain.
When people fail to understand the paradoxes of Christianity they land in serious problems. A girl who had devoted her to fight the good fight and keep the faith, on her way home from prayer she was rapped and got infected with HIV/AIDS virus. A family man who was faithful in tithing got retrenched from his job. The cases goes on, yes the horrible testimonies will be growing in volumes with passage of time.
Without understanding the paradox of Christianity, questions emanating from this life will land us in a very discouraging situation.
HOW DOES GOD RELATE TO OUR PARADOXES?
1. God is always present when he is absent. Some people say, “I don’t feel the presence of God in my life.” We don’t need to feel the presence of God but to be assured that he is there. Our relationship with God should not be based on feeling rather reason.
A husband should not always feel to be in love with his wife, but should know that he loves the wife. Love is in the head – it’s a conviction, not a feeling from what they might be going through as a family.
As the Israelites were fighting with the Philistines – being defeated, they confirmed that there was a prophet of the God who foretold the Israelites army their stratagems. Thus Elisha become there target. “When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city,” the Bible records. The servant was perplexed as Elisha was in peace for they were encamped with angles that were not seen by the servant.
Even when we don’t see God, He is always there.
2. God is always in time even when he is late. Lateness is a relative term, based on a set time (by human beings). Eternity has no time: it’s timeless, without a beginning or end. Within eternity God erected time – the past, the present, and the future. Thus when we say that God’s late, that is our timing, but timing is contained in eternity.
Example Lazarus was sick, a massage was sent to Jesus: “Lord, the one whom you love is sick.” But Jesus responded, “This sickness will not end in death.” Lazarus and the sisters might have comforted themselves that everything was going to be okay. But Lazarus died. Worse still Jesus lingered for four days after his death. For the sisters Jesus was late. But when Jesus arrived he made resurrection to be a present reality (but we human beings treasure it as a future hope). Here Jesus called Lazarus from the future to the present. God is never late. We need to believe that God is in time even when he is late.
3. God is always right even when he is wrong. In logistics these are some of the common contradiction that arises for making sense out of something. The very thing might not have sense, it does have sense but one doesn’t have sense to see sense in it, or both doesn’t have sense. We don’t obey God because he makes sense that is obeying human logic.
When Abraham was old, God give him a promise of a son, later He called him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. This seems not to make sense. Abraham went a lone to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, maybe Sarah wouldn’t have embraced the idea (Abraham never discussed it with her). When Isaac inquired, “But where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” “Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burn offering, my son.”” How did Abraham manage to understand God in such situation? He did not understand the instructions but the voice of the instructor: The same voice that promised the son – Isaac; The same voice that revealed to him the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We need to obey God, not because of understanding his instructions fully but because of who he is: His voice. We need to seek to know the voice of God. “The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out,” Jesus said.
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