Clues To Life – Contradiction

Related to our life’s objectives is the understanding of contradictions.  For this there are key words/concepts to consider: hypocrisy, paradox, rationalization, carnality, emotionalism, evidence and conclusions, personality, jealousy, escapism, pride and revenge.  Society is full of contradictions, and they commonly hurt mankind.  If ultimately encountered for repair, they make the people of the contradictions appear to be ignorant, prideful, resistant of progress, sometimes ugly and sinful.  The contradiction of slavery now appears evil to us.  The contradiction of the fathers of the nation in arguing for freedom and equality, made public a lie of slavery, yet many of them held slaves.  Today we have enormous problems in our culture.  The culture is confused about sexual orientation, so resorts to various kinds of presumed logics to support some practices, and a culture broadly saturated by transgressional sex.  At the same time, the treatment of persons stimulated properly about controls in sexual freedom is treated with disdain.  Loss of control may lead to imprisonment, and loss of respect, coupled with fear.  We already know the force of temptation, but contradict ourselves by creating impossible contexts for a massive number of people.  The magnet of sex should not distract the spiritual mind in the wrong directions.  Magnets draw their own kind.  Sex is magnetic. The wise person becomes sufficiently self-controlled to recognize the divorce between the gift of God in right context and the soiling of sin in wrong context.  Informed persons know that it is easier to keep propriety for some matters than for others.  Temptation appeals when we have only marginal resistance to contradictions.  Consistency in value practice is evidence of the obedient (biblical) person.

The issue is major, and must be understood even by the person of presumed integrity.  Do I lie when the advantage appears to be with me?  As a child I tried it almost as early as I can remember.  Sometimes it worked, but the temporary success wasn’t worth it.  I lost some time in development.  I incurred the wrath of my mother, and lost truth.  I learned that the discomfort for some truths was better than the punishment for contradiction.  I have never fully gotten over the time when Miss Henry, my high school Latin Teacher, caught me cheating on a test.  I was considered an honest student, but I cheated.  I got an F on my paper – rightly so.  I wish I could go back and apologize (repent) to her.  I contradicted what I wanted to be.  Sometimes temptation becomes too great.  I am grateful beyond words that there is a resource in prayer, forgiveness, faith and commitment that taught me the ugliness of my own contradictions.

We do admit to paradoxes.  Those paradoxes often irritate the scholar, even the pedestrian who believes God uses paradox but deplores contradiction (hypocrisy). Some men and women, considering them-selves devout, become angered at the conditions of the world, and some public personages who have so much to do with the engines of daily life.  They make statements they cannot support, take attitudes that violate their faith – rather than pray they fight, rather than take the pattern of peace for correction they take conflict.  It may touch nations, and that in the name of God.  The wise believer, in any faith ought to believe that God is quite able to take care of himself.  He is working to make his followers more like his culture which is peace, love, healing, work and holiness.  When that pattern is violated the person is contradictory of the meaning of God for his own life, and for that of the lives of others.  Willing to make known Scripture we pay the personal price to be paid for demanding solutions.  Truth is the legal tender of heaven – and earth.

From the beginning, mankind was made to respect knowledge/truth and labor – to dress the Garden and know it.  To know all there is to know about God is too much for us.  He admitted it in creating a small office in the Garden, that mankind (Adam/Eve) disrespected.  It was to be a mystery (paradox), but man contradicted.  God did not give man fairy tales to imagine God.  He made clear that much was related to mystery, and repeated it often.  That was covered in elevating faith, in revelation of Scripture, in comfort of prayer, hope of God, and promise beyond mortality.  God wants to save his life image.  We are arrogant in the mortal environment.  It does mean that I have an obligation to seek to know what I can know, to be faithful to truth I find, and to have no reasons to make up anything, or conjure excuse to God.