I have been having trouble writing lately. The gears, they have ground to a halt.
But.
I've been thinking about paradox.
Dictionary.com defines paradox as, "a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth."
My old Merriam-Webster says essentially the same thing.
It seems to me that when we use the word paradox, we often mean, "enigma." Again, according to dictionary.com, an enigma is a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation, a person of puzzling or contradictory character, or something that contains a hidden meaning (a riddle).
Our quest is to find a word that describes something that is not what it seems, something that does not appear to make sense, and yet is true.
Lots of things about Christianity are paradoxical (or seemingly paradoxical, depending on how you understand the term paradox).
In Christianity, you give up everything to gain even more.
In Christianity, suffering leads to joy.
In Christianity, those who serve the most humbly are the best leaders.
In Christianity, weakness is a vehicle to display strength.
In Christianity, admitting to and apologizing for what you have done wrong leads to righteousness and freedom.
In Christianity,
God humbled Himself, giving up His divine glory and becoming a man;
God, who is holy and altogether good, died a gruesome death
so that humanity, perverted by sin and desperately wicked, could receive eternal life.
It's hard to understand, but it's true.
In Christianity, thinking like a child can lead you to wisdom.
2 comments:
Another one that comes to mind is that forgiveness towards those who have deeply wounded us leads to peace of mind. It goes so against the grain of human nature. My nature says,”Don’t forgive them. They don’t deserve it. Nurse that grudge!” ...but that only leads to pain never leaving us. Our hearts never healing.
That's a good one! Thanks for sharing.
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