Many times the will of God runs contrary to the will of us. He comes at problems from a different angle than we do, and we all know his thoughts are nothing like ours. So why are we surprised when he doesn’t want to do things like we want him to do?
I remember a Seinfeld episode years ago in which everything went wrong for one of the characters. Once he figured out that his repeated failure was a result of his own poor decision-making, he decided to try a new approach. From then on he would do the opposite of what he thought he should do, hoping for success in that way.
Strange as it may seem, that do-the-opposite approach actually worked for him. And as I’ve been thinking about God’s ways vs. ours, maybe the same tact could work for the rest of us, too.
In the middle of pondering this, my son Nelson’s newest blog post arrived to my inbox. He’d written it in one of the many airports he’s passing through on his way from the Youth With A Mission base in Hawaii to Thailand. Two quotes from him:
- When I don’t have enough money, I should give some away.
- When I feel like there’s not enough time, I should let someone go before me, making me even more behind than I already was.
And there it was, the do-the-opposite living that seems to connect with the Lord. Why would a logical God ask us to do such illogical things? Nelson gave us the answer: because it leaves the outcome up to him.
The scriptural Paul studied this same dilemma and by sheer will power determined he’d live by a do-the-opposite philosophy. He very much wanted to please God and tried hard, but white-knuckling his way through didn’t work: “I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do.” (Romans 7:19) Thinking like God was the opposite of what his heart wanted.
His conclusion was that mankind has no natural goodness in him, which is probably the reason we all find it difficult to think like God. After all, if we have no natural goodness in us and he is all goodness, we’re exact opposites.
So, what hope do we have?
Paul says our hope is in knowing that God is a willing partner in our efforts to live-the-opposite of our natural tendencies. When we’re short on money, he’ll empower us to give some away. When we’re in a rush, he’ll give us the will to let another go ahead. And when we live this way, God will take care of the outcome.
There’s one other benefit, too. To quote Nelson again: “Mastering this kind of attitude actually brings a whole lot more peace than the alternative.”
Paul said, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me? …. Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)