Living in the paradoxical truths

Andrew Hamilton over at Backyard Missionary posts this paradoxical observation of living in the paradoxical truths

The life of discipleship to Jesus is one of great paradox.

1. No matter what we have done or where we have been he accepts us, loves us and forgives us. There is no limit to the grace of God. We can never make him stop loving us. This is a fact and never changes. Lousy Christians are as loved by God as superheroes.

2. We are called to absolute self sacrificing devotion where our lives are laid down and we follow his will for our lives. We ‘deny ourselves take up our cross and follow him’. This is also a fact and never changes. He doesn’t have a soft option for those who only want a little ‘god in their lives’

Somewhere in those two truths is the life of discipleship.

Nothing we can do…
Everything we must do…

I find it so interesting that paradox is such a large part of Jesus' teaching...
and yet in the church we often struggle with holding things in tension. It's almost as if we do everything we can to avoid paradox, to avoid not having all the answers. And there is only way to do that, and that's to become religious and pretend you have all the answers all the time... when in fact, to use what may sound like a cliche... we know the one who has all the answers.

There was a time when a lot of people said things like "when I get to heaven, I'm goiong to ask God..." Let me say this gently... "bunk!" Some of the questions we have here, won't mean a "hill of beans" in heaven. Some of the questions we have here, we'll never understand the answers anyways.