When Tweets Clash: Paradoxes of internet truth

So many wise and inspirational sayings are shared on facebook.  So many “if you love Jesus, then you will forward it with ten friends” chain e-mails going around.

Do these bits of wisdom motivate you?  They motivate me to unsubscribe or hit the delete button more often than not.

Today, a blogger (nukelearfishing) I follow wrote a great post on what happens when these proverbial shares, likes, and tweets clash:

An example would be the proverbs, “Many hands make light work”* and “Too many cooks spoil the broth.” If we saw either of them on their own we might say that they are true, but when you put them together there is at least a creative tension between them, if not a conflict. We either have to decide that one is right and the other is wrong or be prepared to live with them as a paradox. For the most part we are very happy to do that. It’s like some optical illusions where the same picture can be seen in two ways.

The blogger goes on to make the point that while most people can deal with the seemingly contradictory sayings of the internet, they aren’t so quick to live with the paradoxes concerning God, such as

• God’s discipline and love
• Jesus is simultaneously and fully human and fully God

Christian faith has more than a few paradoxes.

• With Jesus the way up is down or becoming lowly.
• The way to save your life is to give it up.
• We are to crucify self and love our enemies.

Living in tension while trusting that God knows best is part of having faith in the first place.

You don’t have to understand how it is true to trust God’s truth.  In my experience, God rewards those who choose to walk in faith by giving them more understanding only after they take their first steps.

If you are a sharer of internet philosophy, take a moment to consider if what you are saying holds true all the time.  How would a person in various circumstances practically apply what you’re saying.  And for goodness sake, please take a moment before you try to guilt people into passing this truth along only “if they love Jesus.”

Pray and Praise God when your faith is tested

Sunday’s message wrapped up the book of Habakkuk.  This little Old Testament book is so easy to relate even if you just look at the very first part and very last part.  For instance Habakkuk starts off by accusing God of not caring and being unfair, but in the end, Habakkuk claims that he will trust God, even if God doesn’t change Habakkuk’s circumstances.

That is called FAITH.

It’s not always easy… And it comes with tests …But it’s worth it!

James 1:2-4 puts it in perspective …you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Think about it.  How important is it for you to understand and approve of God’s decisions?  What if God is acting very “unGod-like” to you?  Will you stop loving and serving Him?  Will you stop giving because you don’t like what He’s up to?  Well you shouldn’t…That’s not trusting God to be God.  That’s trying to BE GOD! Spiritual fickleness will not lead to maturity and wholeness because it fails to pass the test of true faith.

Two things Habakkuk did when he doubted God was he kept communicating with God through PRAYER  and PRAISE. In other words, when Habakkuk had questions, he discussed them with God, instead of running from him.  And rather than throwing blame for what Habakkuk didn’t think God had done right, he began magnifying what God had done right in his past.  Just those two methods of communicating with God can make all the difference to you.

Be faithful in your praying and personally worship God with praises…do it daily.  Your circumstances may not change, but your perspective might!

You can review the first two sermons of the series at http://teamchurch.org/sermons.html.  Sorry we had tech difficulties on the last sermon of the series.