Author, educator and commentator Dr. James Denison has been pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas since June, 1998. Prior to that, he was pastor at churches in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as Midland (at First Baptist!) and Mansfield, Texas. "Two doctors standing together makes a paradox." Now that we have that out of the way, consider the contradictions we experience every day. Everyone at my house was cheering for the Arizona Cardinals last night, primarily because they were the underdogs. We pull for the team that is expected to lose, then are disappointed when they do what they were supposed to do.
This morning we heard again from Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who has been predicting the weather since 1886. He saw his shadow in the bright sunlight, which means that six more weeks of winter are on their way. If it was a cloudy and therefore colder day, Phil would have predicted an early spring. Shouldn't it be the other way?
Aristotle said that truth is non-contradictory. He apparently never visited a Baptist church. We "look up" a hymn by looking down at the hymnal. We "turn in" our Bibles by keeping them and finding the
prescribed passage. We "take" an offering-if we have to take it from the people, is it really an offering? And when the preacher says "in conclusion," we know the end is not yet in sight.
What would Aristotle think of our Trinitarian assertion that God is three and one, or our Incarnational claim that Jesus was fully God and fully man? Mark Twain was right: If I could understand every word of the Bible, I wouldn't believe that God wrote it.
Is God behaving in a contradictory way in your life? Is he seemingly unresponsive to a prayer you are offering with urgency? Is he asking you to accept something you don't like or do something you'd rather not do? Join the club. At least you're not Noah, told to build an ark when it had never rained; or Abraham, promised that he would be the father of many nations when his wife could not bear a child; or Joshua, called to step into the Jordan River when it was a torrential, life-threatening flood. If you're marching around Jericho with nothing more than a trumpet in your hand, you're in good company. If you're passing the time in a Philippian jail by singing hymns at midnight, Paul
and Silas would approve.
If you're struggling to trust God's promises and providence today, you might consider my favorite prayer in the Bible. A father pled with Jesus to heal his child: "If you can do anything, take pity on
us and help us." Jesus promised, "Everything is possible for him who believes." The father replied, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:22-24). And Jesus did. Would you like him to do the same for you?
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