Integrating Reality
This is one of the most fascinating topics! It's a bit abstract, but important.
The modern mind naturally wants to compartmentalize things (to seek understanding), yet reality is integrated. We tend to emphasize one side, rather than the full package. Here are key examples.
| Primary | Secondary |
|---|---|
| God is one (person) | God is three (community) |
| God is transcendent (outside us) | God is immanent (in us) |
| Eternity (Author's view) | Time (characters' view) |
| Predestination | Freewill |
| Christ is God (supernatural) | Christ is man (natural) |
| Christ crucified (surrendering) | Christ resurrected (conquering) |
| Soul | Body |
| Faith (love coming in) | Works (love going out) |
| God is obvious | God is hidden |
| Faith (truth by authority) | Reason (truth by deduction) |
| Heart (will) | Head (intellect) |
| Subjective motive (intention) | Objective law (action) |
| Freedom | Submission |
| Being | Doing |
| Waiting (contemplation) | Initiative (action) |
| Witnessing by words | Witnessing by actions |
| Love the sinner | Hate the sin |
| Man is great | Man is wretched |
| Mercy (debt forgiven) | Justice (debt paid) |
| Humility/seriousness/work | Confidence/joy/party |
| These are the main ones, but note there many 'derivitives' such as: "God is easy to please, hard to satisfy" or "God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to let you stay that way" or "strive for the ideal, live in the real" etc. | |
Real World Examples
Are these columns contradictory? No, merely different aspects of one reality. Here are examples showing how familiar, yet apparently irreconcilable things can be integrated:
- Water acts as a solid, gas and a liquid; while always retaining its nature (H20).
- The Heisenberg Uncertainly Principle (1927), foundational to quantum physics, shows the nature of light to be both a particle and a wave (and proves we can never know which for any given point in time).
- Your very own nature is a soul-body compound, not 50%-50%, but 100%-100%.
- Your body's cells are not half from each parent, but all from both.
- True marriage (as God intends) is not 50%-50%, but 100%-100%.
- A man can be both a father and a king; a woman both mother and queen.
- An author can be present to characters in the novel and outside of it.
It's often asked "Can a God of love include wrath?" Yes. God's wrath is the way God's love is experienced when we don't want it!
Once a friend received a vision from of a horseshoe magnet with one end labeled 'joy' and the other 'wrath.' The message: God uses the pair to draw us to himself. Both ends connect.
Unless we're able to escape our linear, compartmentalized worldview, we won't see how some important things can appear contradictory, but in reality are not. (Of course, some things actually are contradictions—but not the list above—we just need to be careful discerning.)
Note: in my experience most of the alleged 'contradictions' in the Bible aren't even genuine candidates; rather they are simply due to oversimplified thinking, the inability to see with both eyes, to experience 3D, to bear the mystery.
Yet Jesus is frequently confounding skeptics with succinct, memorable integrations of truth.
Examples:
- "Many are called, but few are chosen." [freewill/predestination]
- "Be in the world, but not of the world." [being/doing]
- "Act innocent as doves, yet shrewd as snakes." [subjective/objective]
- "You're sins are forgiven; go and sin no more" [sinner/sin]
- "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, render to God what is God's." [character/Author]
Important Clarifications
- Identify Trends. We are heavily influenced by our temperament/gifts, our lcoal Christian fellowship, Christianity at large, society at large, and society in this age, etc., so it's important to recognize natural currents to potential overemphases. For example, in the middle ages society was better at 'hard' virtues (courage, heroism, fidelity) than at the 'soft' ones (compassion, tolerance, mercy); today that is reversed.
- Not Balance, but "Right-ness". Some use the word 'balance' to describe the relation between columns, but it's innaccurate, implying a compromise. For example, one doesn't have a 'balance' between the eyes and hands—rather it acts according to it's true nature. This is part of what's meant by 'righteousness.'
- Priorities. Each column entry has a priority over the other (depending on God's perspective or ours.) E.g., From our view, repentence comes before believing ('out with the bad, then in with the good'). The other priorities are left as exercises to the reader. :)
- Extremism-Bad. If the devil can't motivate us directly to evil, he will encourage us to a.) defer to another time, b.) prioritze a second thing as first, or c.) take one side of the truth to an extreme. This last one is relevant here. He will tempt to extremism (esp. by ignoring the other side) getting us out of whack.
- Extremism-Good. Based on the previous remark, it might seem that the popular adage 'everything in moderation' is always appropriate, but that statement isn't universal—it doesn't even apply to itself! Every situation is not a "both/and" and some things are not best in moderation. For example, physically we always want extremely good health. Spiritually it's the same; we want love maximized.
The Practical Bottom Line
Emphasizing the right thing at the right time has significant applications for receiving God's fullest love. (E.g., before we sin he wants us to focus on his justice, afterwards his mercy. The devil encourages the reverse.)
But outside of general guidelines, how does a person know specifically when to emphasize one thing over another?
- Our Part. If we're driving our car off the road, God will let us drift until we experience the road shoulder at which point we'll either self-correct or suffer!
- Others' Part. Close Christian fellowship will help identify our blind spots.
- God's Part. The Holy Spirit will lead us via prayer.
There's no subsitute for these. The reason is because life's purpose is not to have a perfect map and then drive it; rather, it's to enjoy the journey with the Map-maker.
I am here, ready to give more. Where are you? Will you follow Me through this maze of life for which I have the map? How could you ever know the way? Each step is carefully sculpted with a detail you could not know, nor could I explain.
I say trust Me because I would only confuse you and cause you greater strain. Know that I am the God of all. I live in you and therefore I know where I am going, though you don't. I do nothing without a reason. Nothing! Like My Word, I do not waste time, effort, energy. Your life here is too short for that. Believe in Me, for I am your provider.
Walk along side with Me. I am here, with you, loving you, serving you, being in you. I cannot do more right now than I'm already doing. You've got all of Me now—please do not doubt Me or despair, My child. Love moves Me, faith sustains you. Live for Me. I'm taking care of it all.