Paradox

"We live close to death, but here we are, still alive.  We have been beaten within an inch of our lives.  Our hearts ache, but we always have joy.  We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others.  We own nothing, and yet we have everything." Paul (2 Cor.6: 8-10)


I've just finished reading the section on "Paradox" in my devotional. (The One Year Book of Hope) Nancy Guthrie has this in her introduction. "To make our home in the Kingdom of God, we must make some sense of its paradoxes.  We must come to accept that our way of thinking and valuing and enjoying this life will never make sense to the world.  As A.Z Tozer said, "A real Christian is an odd number anyway.  He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen, talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see, expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another, empties himself in order to be full, admits he is wrong so he can be declared right, goes down in order to to get up, is strongest when he is weakest, richest when he is poorest, and happiest when he feels worst.  He dies so he can live, forsakes in order to have, gives away so he can keep, sees the invisible, hears the inaudible, and knows that which passeth knowledge."


"What a way to live." (Guthrie)