These voices that whisper in the night
Can sound so amazingly reasonable,
So utterly sane,
So temptingly pragmatic.
They don’t sound crazy;
They don’t sound bizarre.
They are the voice of reason,
Of sense,
Of normality.
They are proactive, persuasive,
Offering practical solutions:
Ways out of the wilderness which lead to freedom.
What’s not to like about them?
But so often, these eminently sane, utterly pragmatic solutions
Lead us not into freedom,
But to the desolation of dead-end cul-de-sacs.
They obviate the need for faith,
Leaving us in the barren desert,
Abandoning us bereft and alone in the wilderness of disobedience.
How did we end up here?
We didn’t want to disobey.
But every time we choose sight over faith,
Every time we allow the persuasive voice of pragmatism to win,
Rather than standing defiantly on the promises of God,
We lose out.
Abraham holding Ishmael, not Isaac…
David lured into the mess of murder from following the lust of selfish longing and listening to the rationale offering excuses for normal human needs…
The Bible is scattered with evidence of the
Sin of pragmatism versus faith.
Faith is folly, the voices say.
It’s unreasonable to expect God to…
Indeed, it is.
Unreasonable to expect deliverance.
Unreasonable to hope for mercy over judgment.
Unreasonable to believe there’s a way out of Egypt,
To believe a Saviour could come from a virgin teenager,
To think a dying man can hold the keys of death and hell.
But we are called to live by faith, and not by sight.
Called to believe God has the right partner for us for life.
Called to believe God can bring reconciliation after a lifetime of distance.
Called to believe God can do the impossible for us.
We are called to turn from pragmatism to faith,
From Machiavelli’s ‘the end justifies the means’ to Jesus’ ‘die in order to live.’
It doesn’t make sense?
That’s O.K.
Miracles never did make much sense,
But are evidence, nonetheless, of God’s interest in us and proof that He is able to do more than we imagine, dream or dare to ask.
Live by faith.
You’ll be amazed at what you see.
