"Answers"

Answers

January 29, 2014

The older I get, the more convinced I become that mankind is pretty ineffective at running mankind.  I read a recent study which studied other studies and the study in question determined that two out of three studies have their conclusions reversed within a very short time after publication.  We probably paid big bucks for that.

“We want answers!”  We hear this so often, don’t we?  Isn’t it amazing how seldom we hear answers or get reports of resolutions?

“Wherever two or more are gathered, there are three or more opinions.”  This is a fairly accurate description of just about everything in America, but it is most often said of the Church.  A similar observation of Congress would be modified to, “Wherever the 535 are gathered there are 600 or more opinions, unless a camera is involved.  Then there would be 4,000 opinions, 3 investigations, 4 committees formed, 17 resolutions penned, 2 bills sponsored and 23 new taxes.  P.S. – Absolutely nothing would be accomplished to satisfy anyone, anywhere.”  No wonder God commands that we pray for those in charge.

Of course there are real problems presenting big questions in life, and people want answers.  This presents two problems; first, there is THE problem, and second, there is the problem created by how we handle all other problems.  The second problem is big because we never get to the first, most important problem (your clue was the caps “THE”).  The second problem is that despite the evidence collected over millennia, we still believe that mankind is capable of solving mankind’s problems.  There is a term applied to repeated behavior always obtaining disappointing results yet continuing in the behavior – it’s called insanity.  Humankind is guilty of a collective insanity.  I should clarify at this point, when I say that mankind is incapable of answering mankind’s problem, I am not at all referring to treating diseases like polio, or designing a vehicle capable of journeying to the moon.  I refer instead to those diseases of the soul, the spirit the inner man or woman.  This, of course, is THE problem.  Our successes with little problems like curing diseases or designing rocket ships have served to inflate our ego in such a way that we think that mankind can solve the core problem with humanity.  There is only one answer to that problem, and it is not found in humanity, or in humanity’s wisdom.

1 Corinthians 1:18-31(NIV)
¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  ¹⁹For it is written:     

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;     

the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  ²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  ²²Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  ²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
²⁶Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  ²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  ²⁸He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹so that no one may boast before him.  ³⁰It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  ³¹Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

That’s the answer I needed.