Watch/Listen
Old And New
Brian Mashburn
May 20, 2018
Audio Player
Do You Understand Paradox?
I knew a man who was a self-proclaimed "simple-minded man", and would remind me of this quite often. When we would talk, and move into subjects of some substance, it became increasingly clear what he meant by this. He is more committed to the idea that all truth is simple than he was to actual truth. The moment we moved into subjects that might have some complexity to them, or "two sides" to consider, or worse, two seemingly contradictory things that are both simultaneously true, he dismissed it with a shake of the head and something to effect of, "that's just making things too complicated".
This man was a generally good man. But he was also a lazy man. Oh, he worked hard with his hands, just not with his mind. This was sad; because this laziness made him unavailable to busloads of people he came across, and disqualified him from truckloads of truth.
I cannot overstate the importance of not doing this for Christians. Look, many things in life are simple, and people certainly do sometimes make things too complicated. But equally (and paradoxically!) true is that many things in life are not simple, they just simply and inherently require conscientious deeper thinking.
I cannot overstate the importance of this. Anyone who wants to mature spiritually must understand and embrace paradox. We must love God with all of their minds.
So, do not confess your sins to my simple minded friend, because the idea that God both forgives you and demands better from you is "just too complicated" for him. Do not explain how we follow old, counter-cultural truths in new, culturally relevant ways, because that is "just too complicated" for him.
Let it not be so for you as we continue finding the truth in contradictions.