Logic: Fear's Carefully Crafted Mask?

Last night one of our former students came to our door at 10:30 and stayed until after midnight. Poor kid, we talked his head off! He is in his first year of college and went through some tough stuff last year. He is on the path to following God through all of it. 

Brent and I stayed up for a while after he left, truly praising God for what is going on in that young man’s life. You see last year at this time, he wanted nothing to do with us. We had spent time building into him and loving him. We committed to not giving up on him. And honestly, it seemed to us like it was all in vain. Then, the knock on the door that got us out of bed and to led us to praise God deep in our hearts for the work He has been doing all along!

One thing I have learned from working with teenagers is that they can hurt our hearts pretty deep. I have spent heart and time loving on lots of students. There are only a handful who I have had the humble privilege to see really “get it.” Logic tells me that all that time and emotion are not worth the results. Logic tells me to find some other place to invest. Something more profitable.

I spent most of my high school and college days dating someone I thought I was going to marry. All the future plans were made. Children’s names planned. Years of becoming best friends and helping one another through those tough transition years. Love. He was killed in a motorcycle accident. 

Though God’s plans were clear and He blessed me with an incredible man to marry, logic had taught me that truly loving him would be too painful and that he too would be gone somehow. All it would take is one careless driver or one wrong decision and he would be gone. Logic said, “Don’t love people because they don’t last.”

We are programmed to learn based on extrapolation. What are the facts we can pull from a situation? What are the consistencies and norms? Don’t give much attention to the anomalies. They’re just flukes. Our logic and reason can solve most things. We humans do possess the highest form of thinking, right?

I think we’ve got it all wrong.

I see right where my logic was taking me. I would still be in a difficult marriage, living based on my understanding of what love does to a person. I would have passed that mentality onto my precious daughter, continuing the cycle. I would have never experienced the freedom of loving my husband fully. Or, the freedom of being gripped by the beauty of my children and loving so deep I feel it in my chest. I would never have had the privilege to walk with Brent as he faces trials and be the one who God uses to build him up. I would have never known the ironic freedom of giving myself to the one God made me to love.

 

Also, logic would have caused me to avoid teenagers at all costs. It would have bred a cynical view and led me to a commitment of hopelessness for the future generations. I can hardly write the words… those kids that have experienced His love and purpose, their lives set on a new path; that would not have been so. I would have found some other “self” thing to fill my time with. I would have been led further down the path of control and misery.

What has human reasoning led you to believe?

 

Perhaps, our logic alone (without God’s leading), is really a carefully crafted mask to hide fear.

 

Here are some interesting words:

• "Without weakening in his faith, he (Abraham) faced the fact that his body was as good as dead… yet he did not waver through unbelief…” Romans 4:19-20. 
•  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher thanyour ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9
• “To God belong wisdom and power; counsel and understanding are his.” Jon 12:13
• "The fear (awe, respect, reverence) of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10
• “Wisdom’s instruction is to fear the LORD, and humility comes before honor.” Proverbs 15:33

Our logic is faulty! Our human minds alone, do not have the ability predict outcomes! Len Schlesinger, a Harvard business professor says, " Treating an uncertain world as if it were predictable only gets you into trouble."

 

Those anomolies that we learn are flukes, actually ruin the whole argument for logically predicting and controlling our outcomes. The boy on our porch last night with his head in his hands saying thank you and getting a glimpse of the fact that God really does have big dreams for his life. The twenty nine year old grown girl who has been left and abandoned and is now pouring love out… me. We are anomalies to this whole logic thing.

 

The less of me and my logic/control/fear, the more I am open to being led by the One who made me. What about you?

 

I know that there are more painful times ahead of me. Do I want to squeeze tight and trust in the illusion of control? Or do I want to open my arms, my hands, my heart and trust in the reality of my Savior who is in control?  Does all of life come down to fear or trust?

 

Is the most important thing about us what we believe about God? (as A.W. Tozer says)

 

Forgive the Spanish subtitles. (I liked this video best!)