Well Said: A Fourth Possibility

More from Night of the Confessor (read more about that book here). .

The "impossible things" that are the expression of faith and whereby that "kingdom of the impossible" enters our lives (and the world also), such as forgiveness, nonviolence, and generous, unselfish love--generally bring the opposite of success. That is something that is also evident from Jesus' life story: his "downward career."

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"This world," in which the "law of the most powerful" applies and in which inconsiderateness and sharp elbows are the rule, offers only three options to those who don't like it: despair and become resigned, adapt and "do as the Romans do," or lull and benumb your senses with some drug or other. After all, there are innumerable drugs on the market from the chemical kind to the relgious ones!

Faith means the courage to opt for a fourth possibility: to persevere on the path of unselfishness, nonviolence, and generous love, even if it means defying this world's logic, power, and usual style. The apostle Paul repeatedly describes this conflict as a dispute between "the spirit" (pneuma) and the "body" or "flesh" (sarx), and he acknowledges that this struggle has been hard for him, and that he frequently would have been defeated or given up had he not been supported by the power of God. But that power--yet another typical paradox of Paul's--is most clearly displayed in human weakness.

This fourth way is the "fourth dimension of reality." It is the sphere "in which God dwells." From the human viewpoint it is a "realm of the impossible," of that which does not suit "the world" and cannot enter it.

Seen from the other side, from the viewpoint of faith, God is what makes sense of the "absurd" and "irrational" behavior such as unselfishness and nonviolence. He makes sense of it but doesn't give any guarantee of success--let us not confuse the two! "If we count on God," then, and only then, does the "path of Jesus" and following Jesus make sense.