Mind Benders for My Good and God's Glory

I don’t watch many movies, but when I do, I enjoy a good mind-bender. Movies like Tenet, Inception, and Interstellar keep me thinking. They keep me engaged, and they keep me coming back because I never quite feel like I have figured out what’s going on. In this way, they keep me frustrated!

There are many aspects of the Christian faith that are mind-benders: God’s sovereignty and our responsibility, the knowability of an incomprehensible God, Jesus as fully God and man, the omnipresence of God (He is at all places, in all times, in His fullness). And oh yeah, there’s the Trinity. Or how about this gem from the Apostle Paul: 

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

When I am weak, I am strong. Mind-bender? You better believe it. Listen to Paul Tripp explain:

“God chooses for you to be weak to protect you from you and to cause you to value the strength that only he can give. In this way, the weaknesses that he sends your way are not impediments to the good life. They are not in the way of his loving plan. They are not signs of his lack of care. They are not indicators of the failure of his promises. They do not expose gaps in the theology that we hold dear. They are not indications that the Bible contradicts itself when it says that God will meet all of your needs. No, these weaknesses are tools of his zealous and amazing grace. They protect you from the arrogance of self-reliance that tempts us all. They keep you from thinking that you’re capable of what you’re not. They remind you that you are needy and were created to be dependent on one greater than you. They cause you to do what all of us in some way resist doing - humbly run to God for the help that only he can give.

So your weaknesses are not the big danger that you should fear. What you should really fear are your delusions of strength. When you tell yourself that you are strong, you quit being excited about God‘s rescuing, transforming, and empowering grace. Paul actually celebrated his weaknesses, because as he did, the power of God rested upon him. He didn’t live a fearful, discouraged, and envious life; he was content because he knew weakness is the doorway to real power, power that only God can and willingly does supply.”

A glorious facet of the Christian life is we never exhaust our knowledge, understanding, and experience of God.

Every day we keep coming back to know Him, love Him, and experience Him a little bit more. But unlike the frustrating effect of Hollywood’s mind-bender, coming back leads us to joy, wonder, and awe! May that be your reality today as you experience the mind-bending truth that when you are weak, in Christ you are strong!