Paradoxy: Coming to grips with the contradictions of Jesus by Tom Grace

The great paradox of the 21st century is that, in this age of powerful technology, the biggest problems we face internationally are problems of the human soul.
~Ralph Peters~

Paradox: A truth that appears to contradict itself
E.g.:
 - The only constant is change
 - Standing is more tiring than walking
 - Youth is wasted on the young

The paradoxes of Jesus clearly reveal that he understood and emphatized with our eotional, physical and spiritual struggles. Jesus knows that we frequently drive ourselves to depression in our pursuit of perpetual happiness.We crave fame until we attain it, and then we fell into solitude. We neurotically worry and insure agst catastrophes to calm outselves agst accidents that rarely occur. We climb the pole of power only to find it is greasiest at the top. We continually plan days, months and years ahead only to find at the end of life that we are chasing the end of the rainbow.

A real Christian is an odd number....He feels supreme love for one whom he has never seen....empties himself in order to be full, admits he is wrong so that he can be declared right....is strongest when he is weakest, [and is] richest when he is poorest...He dies so he can live, forsakes all in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows that which surpassess knowledge.
~A.W. Tozer~

We cannot escape the realities of these paradoxes by simply denying them or by accusing those who choose to live by them of naivete. It is better when we embrace them as part of our daily practice.

1. Taking on more load and labor to obtain rest: Matthew 11:28-30
2. Seeing isn't believing: Walk by faith and not by sight: 2 Cor 4:16, 18, 5:1, 6-7
3. Give to receive: Acts 20:35
4. Be enslaved to Christ to be free:  Romans 7:14-15, 21-23
5. Finding Fool's wisdom: For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom
6. Power of positive weakness - yielding to conquer. Admiiting weakness is painful but heals, relieves, matures and deepens us.
7. Taller when we bow: To be a humble servant to be the greatest (Stooping to greatness).
8. Die to live

Many of us know all too well the price we pay for our workaholism. Too often workaholism merely reflects how empty & indefinable our lives are outside of what we do or the possessions we have.


When circumstances befall us - and they will - we are strongest when we trust God. We find our greatest power in that place of trust in the presence of God, where we listen for God's voice.
The key difference betw athletic races and the Christian "race" is that we do not compete agst others but agst spiritual, moral and material things throughout life that become barriers for us.

But we run nevetheless, because we run to convey the love of God in word and in deed to other people, seeking to win them over and to reconcile them, in their broken relationships to God.