Backwards...

Not sure if you’ve noticed yet, but God and Christianity often operate BACKWARDS—contrary to the normal, predictable, and much-enjoyed ways of this world.
We worldly people love normalcy. Consistency is our friend and predictability is what we bank on. We’re basically control freaks. Rational ways of thinking and the law of karma feed our addictions of control. As long as things go our way, everything is hunky dory.
Random, unpredictable events freak us out because we lose control. When control is taken out of our hands, we get nervous, angry, grumpy, and bitter.
We invest in the “rules” and expect the results to be of our liking. When they aren’t, we get mad and throw a fit. We mount our soapboxes to complain about why bad things happen to good people—as if figuring that out will make it all better.
After pitching a fit, our tendency is to take control of the bad situation and fix it.
This approach fails quickly. First of all, we’re not in control of anything. We like to fool ourselves into thinking we are, but we’re not. Every aspect of life can at any time be taken away from us—our families, friends, job, hobbies, houses, etc. No one is outside the reach of peril, none are immune to catastrophe.
Second, any “fix” we bring to the table is temporary at best. Fallible people cannot produce infallible solutions. The best we can hope to do on our own is seal a leak with a bandaid. We may prevent a few drops from plummeting to the ground, but the temporary dam will burst eventually.
Scripture prescribes a backwards approach, telling us to turn our attention outward—from ourselves to Jesus.
Again, we are incapable of producing a lasting solution. Ridding the world of evil is not our job; nor would we be effective at it. Fighting the fight, remaining strong in the faith, and encouraging others along the way is our calling, but even that is done through a power not our own.
Jesus is our Answer. The Gospel is the solution to every problem we encounter.
This flies in the face of everything we’ve been taught. If I have a problem, I need to figure out how to fix it, and then do it! In other words, “Me, me, me, me, ME!” I can figure this out, I can fix it, I got it.
In God’s economy (the only one that matters, by the way), the mantra is backwards. The Gospel screams Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! We have no part in it. As one pastor says frequently, the only thing we contribute to our salvation is our reason for needing it. JESUS is the solution to our sin problem, continues to be the solution to our sin problem, and will always be the solution to ALL the problems in this world!
How does Jesus help me with my car that just died? Or when I lose my job? Or when I have to bury my child?
Jesus is the answer by transforming our minds to align with His.
Pain and suffering are real, and He graciously provides us the power to cope through His Gospel. But the purpose of the Gospel is not to fix the situation to our liking. The purpose of the Gospel is to fix our eyes on Jesus. We—all our lives both good and bad—exist to glorify HIM; He doesn’t exist to glorify us.
This world isn’t our home. That’s backwards. We invest all our lives, time, energy, and finances into making our lives comfortable here. No wonder we freak out when situations cause us discomfort!
The Gospel in all its backward glory exclaims, “You are NOT created for THIS WORLD. You are created for ME—for GOD and HIS glory.” It doesn’t just patch the leak, it replaces the pipe.
Ease of pain comes when our thinking pipes awaken to the Gospel. Only realizing who Jesus is and who we are in Him frees us from excruciating pain in this life. The pain doesn’t disappear, but it’s refocused into a Gospel-perspective.
For that to happen we must surrender. Our Master Plumber (never thought that would be an analogy for God, did ya?) must replace our leaky thinking pipes. It will hurt and it will stand in stark contrast to everything we thought we knew, but it’s ALWAYS worth it in the end.
Being backwards in this world means being straightforward with Jesus. Get straight with the Gospel. Christ will take it from there.