The Pain of the Paradox

The Pain of the Paradox

The shift from the paradigm to the paradox. To embrace the New is to move on from the old.

I feel like I am stepping from the old paradigm to the new paradox.

A paradigm, a mindset, a mind set on one truth. Where there is one frame of reference, one answer to every question. Like Maths equation, a binary choice, true or false.

In the old days I saw many in the church and outside the church, searching for this singular truth, a place where all answers would be given. A utopia where there is peace and unity, where everyone knows the truth and the truth has set them free. A place where through the assimilation of knowledge, one would achieve enlightenment and absence of conflict.

Its time to clear out the old and make way for the new.

Leviticus 26:9-13 For I will be leaning toward you with favor and regard for you, rendering you fruitful, multiplying you, and establishing and ratifying My covenant with you. And you shall eat the [abundant] old store of produce long kept, and clear out the old [to make room] for the new. I will set My dwelling in and among you, and My soul shall not despise or reject or separate itself from you. And I will walk in and with and among you and will be your God, and you shall be My people. I am the Lord your God, Who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should no more be slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect [as free men].

Like Egypt was for the Israelites there is a certain attraction to the old way, the old circumstance, the old lifestyle. When God shifted them out of the oppressive slavery into the wilderness, the place of transition, many were drawn back. Even after the powerful, miraculous deliverance, many complained to Moses wanting to return to the old. Some craved the herbs and spices, even when they were receiving food directly from God each day, without having to do any work for it.

This past few months I’ve felt trapped and entangled by the vestages of the old, whilst getting a taste of the wonderful possiblities of the new. Old clients, with compounding issues that require resolution but despite my best attempts persist today.

This word best summarises my feelings today:

Psalms 18:4-6 The cords or bands of death surrounded me, and the streams of ungodliness and the torrents of ruin terrified me. The cords of Sheol (the place of the dead) surrounded me; the snares of death confronted and came upon me. In my distress [when seemingly closed in] I called upon the Lord and cried to my God; He heard my voice out of His temple (heavenly dwelling place), and my cry came before Him, into His [very] ears.

Truly this is the storm the Lord spoke of earlier in the week.

But what is my perspective? What is my mind set upon? Am I trapped in the storm and doomed to destruction? Or is it the Lord veiling His approach in the Storm? If my focus is on the circumstance, then my feelings are those of distress and panic, fear and doubt. But if my focus is on the word, the promise. I am at peace and I know that I will pass through the storm, for God has promised:

Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned or scorched, nor will the flame kindle upon you.

So here I am, having shifted from the old mindset where the pursuit of knowledge would lead to the single answer, to the place of the paradox.

The circumstance is stormy, there is no doubt about it, but then there is God, present in the storm, reaching out His hand to draw me out:

Psalms 18:14-16 And He sent out His arrows and scattered them; and He flashed forth lightnings and put them to rout. Then the beds of the sea appeared and the foundations of the world were laid bare at Your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. He reached from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.

Like Peter drowning in the sea, there is the hand of the Lord reaching out for him. As he is going down, he surely sees the feet of the one in front of him, standing on that which has no support, provides no buoyancy, has no substance. Yet despite what he sees, he is elevated, lifted up and can stand again on the circumstance, not because the storm has ceased, but because of the one He is standing with!

The Lord has spoken this: “I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect [as free men].”

What is more real for you? The world described by the one who created it, or what you see?

It is time to step into agreement and align ourselves with the promise. Embrace the One we cannot grasp, hold on to the hand that is reaching out, and walk on the water again.