Uncommon Sense

“Common sense is not always common practice.”—Stephen Covey

Mary looked at her humble teenage self and wondered how in Heaven and on earth what the angel of the Lord said to her about being the mom of the Messiah was going to come to pass. But against all common sense, she trusted and obeyed. (Luke 1:38)

Joseph looked at his awkward, potentially scandalous situation as an unwed father-to-be and figured he had to do the right thing and break it off with Mary quietly. But against all common sense, when an angel of the Lord in a dream told him to do otherwise, he trusted and obeyed. (Matthew 1:24)

The shepherds looked at their low standing in society and wondered how and why an angel of the Lord and a bunch of His holy companions would bother speaking to them in the first place, and especially about the birth of the Savior of the world in a town nearby. But against all common sense, they trusted and obeyed—they went, they investigated, and they testified while praising God for it all. (Luke 2:15)

This is why I love the Christmas story. It’s not quaint and cute. It’s regular people facing incredibly stressful or unbelievable situations that pit their common sense against the unshakable Word of God. It screams, “Are you kidding me?!” There is a familiar Christian slogan that says “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” It sounds like the right thing to say, but it’s not honest. Truth be told, we can relate more to Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds, who might say it should read: “God said it, I’m not sure if I get it, but I’m swallowing hard and going for it because God said it is so.”

Sometimes, we want God’s Word to say something that it is not saying or meaning. The trigger is often when there is mystery in God’s Word, or when God is or seems silent on a specific matter or situation in our lives. We want answers and an explanation for everything. The paradox of this Walk is that it is not to be done foolishly or blindly and that God wants us to search the scriptures to see for ourselves what He is saying, to seek Him beyond the words in print. But at the same time, even if and when we still can’t see clearly, He calls us to do so with this in mind:

“And God said…and it was so.” 

It’s no coincidence that, depending on what version of the Bible you read, those words are mentioned seven times in Genesis 1—almost as if God put them there for us as a One-a-Day vitamin reminder. The response by Mary, Joseph and the shepherds to what the Lord said versus what they could see in front of their eyes, is great encouragement to keep trusting and obeying with all wisdom in a world that is screaming at great volume to do otherwise.

And when in the presence of the Promise—the Messiah, the Child in the manger on a cold winter’s night that was so deep—Mary, Joseph and the shepherds did one more thing of great encouragement: even though they did not have all the answers to their questions, they worshiped. “And God said…and it was so.” Sometimes, worship is giving praise and all our heart while being moved to respond in a church service. But sometimes in the day-to-day grind of life, real and deeper worship is simply walking and trusting and resting in the acknowledgement that “God is God and I am not,” and that is all I need to know. It’s…

“…the attitude of being content not to pry into what God has chosen to keep secret but to live by what one has heard Him say. Reverence includes unwillingness to go a single step beyond what scripture says. When we reach the outer limits of what scripture tells us, it is time to stop arguing and start worshiping.”—J.I. Packer