I don’t know about you... but I tend to lean toward being quite black and white, needing black and white clear, distinct answers. Things need to be logical, in order and have a sense of sequence about them.
Turns out life is not so.
Turns out some things in our faith are not so either.
For so long I lived with an “either, or” mentality. It’s one or the other; no in between.
However, a journey through some pain, hardship and humbling taught me a few things. Predominantly that
OFTEN IT’S NOT A MATTER OF “EITHER, OR”, BUT “BOTH, AND”
Um… woah.
You can imagine how this realisation was revolutionary to my black and white tendencies.
You see, there are many paradoxes that exist in our life of faith. Many tensions we face, ideas that seem to contradict, appearing to be complete opposites.
But God…
Those two words change everything, don’t they?
He has a way of making two things beautifully one. Taking two opposites and showing how they can wonderfully co-exist
At.
The.
Same.
Time.
If you're not sure what I mean, think about some of these “both, and” scenarios:
Jesus is both the Lion (fierce and strong; Rev 5:5), and the Lamb (pure and humble; John 1:29)We as believers are both instantly positionally righteous at salvation (Romans 5:1), and are also on a journey of being progressively sanctified, becoming more like Christ every day (2 Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 3:12)The Bible speaks of both God’s great grace and tender mercies (Eph. 1:7; Luke 1:78), and His divine, sovereign judgement and wrath (Romans 1:18; 2 Cor. 5:10)We are implored to both love God (Matt. 22:37), and fear (revere) Him (Prov. 1:7)And finally, one that has impacted me particularly personally... we live in and experience both God’s goodness and abundance (2 Cor. 9:8), and a world (for now) of mess, suffering and pain (John 16:33; James 1)
That last one is a whole other blog post to come - “glorious mess” is what I like to call it.
But I digress ...
These are just a few examples of the many “both, and” scenarios that we face in this life. And trust me, now that you’re aware of them, you’ll see them everywhere!
The point of this post is to suggest this, that
Perhaps if we went through life holding out both hands, realizing there is room to hold two things at one time, we would live a life filled with much less tension and pride.
Maybe... just maybe... it’s not a matter of “either, or” but “both, and”
And maybe in holding the “both, and” we can see and experience the fullness of the wonder of God in this life.
I pray we do.
With Love,
Disclaimer: What I am NOT saying, is that absolutely everything (especially in faith), is a "both, and" scenario. There are 100% absolute truths that we cling tightly to. Like, Jesus Christ DID come to earth, die on a cross and was risen 3 days later to make a way for us to obtain salvation (the only 'both, and' in this is that He was BOTH God AND man).
