When my oldest son was about 3 I started trying to reason with him about his behavior. You know, trying to help him see the logical reasons why he should obey his parents and why he should not do things like hang on the garage door while it is opening, or run across the street without looking, or diving in the shallow end, etc. I soon realized that logic was completely lost on him. Apparently three year olds just can't grasp even the simplest syllogism.
Well, I'm still working on him. I figure he will eventually start to grasp reasonable arguments. Meanwhile though, for his own good, Kris and I have to try to manage his behavior with positive and negative consequences.
It works okay on kids but what about unreasonable big people. Like, how can we convince someone who thinks they will go to heaven by flying a plane into a building full of people that this makes no sense? How can we convince someone whose mental framework has no concept of sin that they need salvation from sin? How can we convince someone who thinks that planet earth is an organism that the people who live here are actually more important than the planet?
Friends, if you are interested in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with the people in your world, this is what you are up against in the 21st century.
The unreasonableness (is that a word?) prevalent in society has also lead to a lot of sad ironies in this country. More on that tomorrow...maybe
9 comments:
Interesting. Sometimes people who have their own agenda, don't hear reason. Truth has nothing to do with it when people have their own vision. How sad is that? That is why we should only have the agenda that God gives us, then truth will make sense, bc He is truth.
Truth makes sense to us.
Truth does not make sense to people whose thinking schemes are totally different than ours.
But you are dead on about only following God's agenda. God, being infinite can reveal himself to anyone. In that way, Truth can make sense to them.
It's risky to quote C.S. Lewis simply because of his deep, philosophical approach. I find myself needing to re-read his passages to fully grasp what he intended. However, what you have said here reminded me of his written words: "A recovery of the old sense of sin is essential to Christianity. Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really feel this assumption of His to be true, though we are part of the world He came to save, we are not part of the audience to whom His words are addressed. We lack the first condition for understanding what He is talking about. And when men attempt to be Christians without this preliminary consciousness of sin, the result is almost bound to be a certain resentment against God as to one always inexplicably angry."
I guess the most important thing I believe is being said here, among others, is that in order for a person to really know they actually need a savior, they really need to know first that they are completely sinful. Most of us don't grasp that concept.
And the really "sticky" part is helping them realize their sinfulness while fully loving them. How would we ever know we needed to eat a bite of food if we never felt a hunger pain?
And another thing... the whole political agenda with saving the planet. Aren't we missing the fact that the created earth is not intended to live forever?? My understanding is that the Creator has other plans. Don't misunderstand me though. That doesn't mean that we should disregard the "health" of the earth and abuse it. But I wholeheartedly agree that we should focus on the individual human beings that were created to have a relationship with God. I'm definitely of the opinion that our resources - time, energy, money, etc. be spent on people. It's people who are dying without knowing Jesus... The planet cannot be "saved."
well said Karen
Interesting,
Too bad the planet doesn't care if humans inhabit it or not. If we cause our own self destruction the planet will just be fine. It might not be able to support life as we know it for a while, but the planet itself isn't going anywhere.
And I find it funny an evangelical is posting about reasoning with the unreasonable when the sheer volume of information concerning evolution is in favor of it, and yet you folks continue to keep your head in the sand.
An ex-Christian
Interesting,
Too bad the planet doesn't care if humans inhabit it or not. If we cause our own self destruction the planet will just be fine. It might not be able to support life as we know it for a while, but the planet itself isn't going anywhere.
And I find it funny an evangelical is posting about reasoning with the unreasonable when the sheer volume of information concerning evolution is in favor of it, and yet you folks continue to keep your head in the sand.
An ex-Christian
Well said, Sean. Hah, seriously. Is it not a tad arrogant to say that the earth was created for humans and humans only?
Well said, Sean. Hah, seriously... Is it not a tad arrogant to say that the earth was created for humans and humans only?
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