A contradiction is not an event or an occasion or an issue or a complication, it is a place where we now live. We do not visit it, or travel to it occasionally but it is home, our dwelling place while we are on the earth.
It is as if two competing truths are seeking to influence us. We are to embrace both, reject neither, welcome the confusion, seek to find clarity, yearn for understanding, trust God with each dichotomy. Knowing that to understand one truth needs the embracing of the other, rejecting one also means the rejection of the other
There are so many examples
- Living in the present but looking to the future
- The present kingdom and the coming kingdom
- The presence of Jesus and the Christ who will return
- Made holy by Christ but seeking to become holy
- Living in this world but not being of this world
- Being at rest but straining for something more
- Caring for our bodies as we wait to be clothed with our heavenly body
- Already made righteous but seeking to live righteously
- Wanting to be strong but knowing strength comes from weakness
- Knowing the hidden God and the omnipresent God
- Caring for creation as we long for the new heaven and new earth
- Speaking the language of our culture as well as the language of heaven
- Embracing the now and the not yet
My faith is not straight forward, simple and neat and tidy, it is not meant to be. I need to learn the secret of being content, like Paul, in any and every situation. I want to be at rest in the theological, philosophical and practical contradictions in which I find myself. Content to trust God that at present 'I see through a glass darkly but then I shall see face to face'. My knowledge of God will be complete when I see fully
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