The Limits of Logic, or When God is Weird, or My Lost Battle

I never want to become a ‘weird’ Christian.

Some of you may think that its too late for that.

Some people may think that just by being a Christian its too late for that.

But what I mean is, I never want to be the sort of Christian to lay down my brain at the door, or the sort of Christian that buys into every conspiracy theory going, or to become so tied to my ‘Christian culture’ that I stand up for things that aren’t all that relevant to the gospel message itself.

Not to preach on this, but God isn’t a Republican or a Democrat, he doesn’t vote National or Labour, and even if the conspiracy theorists are right and the Illuminati are controlling everything, how does that impact our call to “live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness” while praying “for kings and those in authority” (1 Timothy 2:2)?

God created logic, He made our brains for a reason, and He expects us to use them to think logically and rationally.

But on the flipside, we shouldn’t be limited by our own understanding.

Whenever I think my theology is settled, God does something to shake it up. And that is just the way it should be. If you think you fully understand what God would do in any given scenario, your God is too small. God is mightier than our mortal minds can manufacture, more powerful than pitiful people can possibly perceive, and bigger than my limited alliteration skills.

So although I don’t want to become a weird Christian, I also need to lay that desire at the foot of the cross. Because God might want me to be weird sometimes. And God might do weird things sometimes.

Have you ever read that passage where Jesus cursed a fig tree that didn’t have figs on it, even though it wasn’t the season for figs? Weird!

Have you ever seen the law in Deuteronomy 22:6-7 where God promises a long life to someone who leaves the mother bird behind when they take the young birds from the nest? Weird!

Have you ever noticed Jesus sacrificed himself and bled and died on behalf of sinners like us when we weren’t even sorry for what we did and didn’t deserve to be forgiven? So weird.

And I know what you’re thinking. “Karl, God had perfectly logical reasons for doing all these things, we just don’t understand what those reasons are all the time.” To which I say, absolutely. God is always logical, always loving, always just. But we shouldn’t limit God to our understanding of logic, love, and justice.

Job 11:7-9 says: “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above – what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below – what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.”

How could we ever hope to understand fully a God like that.

I guess the point of bringing this up is to remind us that God may not always do things the way we want Him to do them. God is not a genie in a bottle, granting our wishes, making our lives pleasant and ‘safe’ all the time. But I want to suggest that this is not something that should cause us to question Him or deny Him. On the contrary, this is something that I find incredibly reassuring.

Because when I don’t understand His reasons for something, that is okay. I’m not always supposed to.

“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.” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

We won’t always be able to understand His ways, but we can always trust His ways.

Psalm 25:10: “All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.”

To give you a fairly light-hearted example of this, and one in which I had to learn the hard way that God is trustworthy, I was a big fan of the tv show Lost. It was mysterious, it was well written (mostly), it had all these big themes and a supernatural science-fiction twist to it all. A lot of people grew sick of it after a while, but I defended it, and stuck with it through all six seasons of its run. It was about three episodes from the end, and it was all building up to this grand finale, and I began to get this sense, that I felt was God, saying “Stop watching Lost.”

But God, I’ve invested six seasons of my life into this program. I’ve read internet theories about it. I’ve defended it to people who dismiss it. It’s got three episodes left! I can’t stop now!

So I didn’t.

I stuck with the show, and I watched the last three episodes.

And as the finale began, it was everything I had hoped for. There were beautiful resolutions to storylines, beautiful reunions of former characters, beautiful moments that completely justified me having watched the show and chosen to watch these last episodes. As the episode approached the end, I will admit there were even a few tears, from how perfectly this episode had wrapped up everything for me.

And then in maybe the last thirty seconds of the final episode of this beautiful wonderful show, there was a final twist.

And I went “Oh.”

And it ruined everything.

And I still have not rewatched Lost since then.

God loves me. God loves me enough that maybe He even wanted me to stop watching Lost while it was still a great show, before the last twist spoiled it forever.

But also, God was testing my heart. And in that moment, I chose a tv show over Him. I didn’t understand His reasoning, but I shouldn’t have had to. He is always trustworthy.

2 Timothy 2:13: “…if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”

How often do we choose something else over trusting in God? Isn’t it exciting, and humbling, to realise that he will keep working on us, that we can be “confident of this, that he who began a good work in [us] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6).