Go read My Utmost for His Highest today, 05/30. Go on, the link's at the right...go on. Scoot.
Common sense was like a law in my house growing up. "Use your common sense, Kathie." The joke most times, though, was that I had little of it. If you want me to learn something, give me a book. Then assign an essay. If you really need me to absorb it, make me diagram each sentence.
As an adult, the major times of growth in my life, and deep joy despite deep pain, have been when common sense has taken a back seat to faith. I don't mean ignoring things like not walking down the middle of a busy freeway ("You can't kneel down in the middle of a highway and live to talk about it, son."), but like all other good precepts I have been given, I have taken what should be a guide and turned it into a rule. Common sense is a rule if you don't have a God who is telling you that being Indiana Jones with him is far better.
And I like to be Indiana Jones--but my common sense tries to do it in a nice, safe, lots of rope and back-ups and rappelling gear of my own kind of way. He gets little glory in this scenario, of course, I get little joy (because I have been so busy arranging things that did not need my attention), and a thin story is told on the other side where people who don't know my Jesus can attribute the decent outcome to my abilities and talent and some serendipity.
I know better, and I know the difference. I want His stories on the other side. I read last week that Jesus did not come to preach common sense. From Oswald on May 26: The danger with us is that we want to water down the things that Jesus says and make them mean something in accordance with common sense; if it were only common sense, it was not worthwhile for Him to say it. The things Jesus says about prayer are supernatural revelations.
I confess to spending a lot of time trying to arrange the natural and asking Jesus to sprinkle in some supernatural. Pray with me that I will stop it.
1 comment:
This is a good post. Michael is over on my blog bemoaning his inability/unwillingness to raise roughly $200 for a plane ticket over the next 5 months - a plane ticket that he says might make his life immesurably better - but common sense says that such a step would be irresponsible, particularly with the three biscuits to feed.
But Jesus says "get to the kingdom first you blockhead, then figuring out what to eat tomorrow will be a simple thing."
Liike you said, it's not that common sense is bad or useless, but we have to know when to shelve it in favor of, dare I say it, blind senseless faith.
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