e·nig·ma. noun
a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand.
As a Grace Focused Optimist I believe my life is a grace G.O.O.D. It’s a God orchestrated opportunity for development, disposition, and doxology.
The “G” stands for God; I believe God is always the One dealing with me.
Without turning people into puppets, God deals with me through them. Even when I’m hurting so much I feel like Job, God is the One dealing with me.
I believe this first of all because of the authority of the Bible in my life. The Book is my boss. I take what it tells me at face value…and it tells me that God is always the One dealing with me.
“For of him and through him and unto him are all things.” (Romans 11:36.)
But there’s a second reason I believe God is always the One dealing with me.
[ctt template=”2″ link=”2U6Nf” via=”no” ]Without turning people into puppets God deals with me through them; when I’m hurting so much I feel like Job God is the One dealing with me.[/ctt]
Expectancy
I expect enigmas in living with God. I expect enigmas in living with God because he’s Big in Being.
The tuxedo wearing theology word for this is “Infinite.” His entire character is an ocean without bottom, a sea without boundaries. And everything about his Being leads me to expect enigmas.
Take just this one thought: God’s Being is itself an enigma. He is——The Trinity! One God, solitary in splendor. Three Persons, equal in glory and majesty.
Can you explain this?
Sherlock Holmes at his best is a bumbling Inspector Clouseau before this mystery. Steven Hawking with his genius is a kindergartner yet to learn his “A, B, Cs” in the school of this majesty.
Doesn’t the enigma of God’s Being lead us to expect other enigmas—things like the enigma of him being the One dealing with us through the free and sinful actions of people? Or the enigma of him expressing his love to us by hurting us when it’s necessary for our good and his glory?
Enigma is an inescapable part of living with this God who is Big in Being.
Faith
For another thing, I expect enigmas in living with God because I’m told I must Follow him by Faith. A Christian “walks by faith not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7.)
What’s faith?
By definition, faith is trusting when you can’t fathom. Faith isn’t faith when you’re walking in the noon day sunshine of solutions to all the problems and answers to all the questions.
That’s called sight.
Faith is believing in the howling storm of scanty solutions and absent answers. Faith says with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him” (Job 13.15).
So, the fact we’re called to follow God by faith implies that we’ll bump into enigmas. And when we do, we’re to trust in the God who cannot lie and who is able to do immeasurably beyond all that we can ask or think. The call to live by faith is a call to expect enigmas in our walk with God.
[ctt template=”2″ link=”M7Qbt” via=”no” ]Faith isn’t faith when you’re walking in the noon day sunshine of solutions to all problems and answers to all questions. [/ctt]
Greatness
But there’s one other thing: Enigmas reveal the glory of God’s greatness.
The late comedian Groucho Marx said “I don’t want to be a member of any club that will accept me as a member.” I paraphrase him by saying, I don’t want to follow any God I can comprehend.
My friends, a God without enigmas isn’t a God big enough to help us.
But the God of enigmas—Who is the Almighty God of the Bible—Who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—Who is our God and Father through Jesus—he is a God Whose promise, “If God be for us who can be against us?” is the most comforting reality in existence.
The glory of his greatness as it’s revealed in the enigmas of living with him is what makes us able to say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6.)
I can’t explain the enigma that God is the One dealing with me when people wrong me and life hurts me. But I’m not surprised by that. I expect enigmas when I’m dealing with the true and living God.
They remind me that “G” is for God… and make me glad it is.
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