Have you ever tried to play a stringed instrument when the strings are too loose? Tension is essential to melody! And it is essential to life!
Of course, you can tighten the strings of an instrument too tight...in which case - if you don't break them - you'll get discord. But the solution is not loose strings. The solution is proper tension.
Tension is essential to faith also.
There is much about God that we cannot understand...much about the Bible and Jesus Christ that is a mystery...How could it be otherwise - with a finite creature attempting to know the infinite Creator? It's kinda like trying to get the ocean in a tea cup!
In the pursuit of God, truth often seems contradictory - tension results. The one who insists of relieving the tension by eliminating one side of the paradox comes up with a half truth.
God's sovereignty and man's freedom, for example...how can both be true?
Rather than accept the tension, some reject one side or the other...and fail to comprehend the God-man relationship. They solve their dilemma...but either they get so uptight with their half view that they're close to breaking, or they quit trying to think at all - resign to an attitude of indifference and neutrality.
Then, the music goes out of their lives...just deadness.
The scripture says: "The righteous will live by faith." (Romans 1:17) Make it so in all of us, Sir....
Copied from "Somewhere Inside Eternity", by Richard Halverson
The Lord bless you!!
Mitch
