Maybe this is unique to me, but I doubt it. In fact, it deals with doubt.
Have you ever thought yourself straight into doubt and disbelief? I have. For example:
I look at the world that God has created, marvel at its beauty, then think about the first words of the book of Genesis (“In the beginning God created . . .”), and get derailed by the mind-blowing concept of eternity.
I think of God’s amazing love for us by sending His only Son, who was “the Word [that] became flesh” (John 1:14) and my mind implodes. How is that possible?
I ponder the concept of the Trinity, all one God yet each distinct, and my mind reels.
I often feel like that student in The Far Side cartoon who wants to be excused because his brain is full.
It is easy to get caught up with the idea that “man is the measure of all things,” a concept the ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras asserted, interpreted to mean that man, rather than God, is “the ultimate source of value” and by extension the ultimate source of wisdom. So it is easy to believe that if we can’t logically understand something then it cannot be true. But this is just not the case, as God himself has told us:
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
My thoughts are not your thoughts."
Isaiah 55:8-9
And this is a good thing, a very good thing, because we don’t have to understand the “peace that surpasses all understanding” in order to experience it.
We don’t have to grasp the width and breadth of God’s love for us to be enveloped by it.
We don’t have to make sense of God’s claims in order to benefit from them.
If we had a God we could totally understand, then we would have a God that is as petty and self-serving and as limited as we ourselves are. And we need a bigger God than this. We need one who is merciful and gracious to forgive us, but who is also holy and just to right all wrongs. We need a God of wonders.
Have you ever thought yourself straight into doubt and disbelief? I have. For example:
I look at the world that God has created, marvel at its beauty, then think about the first words of the book of Genesis (“In the beginning God created . . .”), and get derailed by the mind-blowing concept of eternity.
I think of God’s amazing love for us by sending His only Son, who was “the Word [that] became flesh” (John 1:14) and my mind implodes. How is that possible?
I ponder the concept of the Trinity, all one God yet each distinct, and my mind reels.
I often feel like that student in The Far Side cartoon who wants to be excused because his brain is full.
It is easy to get caught up with the idea that “man is the measure of all things,” a concept the ancient Greek philosopher Protagoras asserted, interpreted to mean that man, rather than God, is “the ultimate source of value” and by extension the ultimate source of wisdom. So it is easy to believe that if we can’t logically understand something then it cannot be true. But this is just not the case, as God himself has told us:
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
My thoughts are not your thoughts."
Isaiah 55:8-9
And this is a good thing, a very good thing, because we don’t have to understand the “peace that surpasses all understanding” in order to experience it.
We don’t have to grasp the width and breadth of God’s love for us to be enveloped by it.
We don’t have to make sense of God’s claims in order to benefit from them.
If we had a God we could totally understand, then we would have a God that is as petty and self-serving and as limited as we ourselves are. And we need a bigger God than this. We need one who is merciful and gracious to forgive us, but who is also holy and just to right all wrongs. We need a God of wonders.
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