The Paradoxes of Life
A paradox is a statement with two totally
opposite meanings that may seem contradictory to each other and yet together
they not only are true but also make sense.
Believing in God in itself has many
paradoxes: the Creator becomes a creature; the Infinite becomes finite; the
Eternal One enters into time; and death is the way to life. These are some of
the paradoxes expressed in the Bible.
The presence of God is one of the many
paradoxes of life. Indeed, sometimes we see God’s love, mercy, and justice, but
there are also times we see only His indifference, condemnation, and even
injustice. In fact, there are many times we are prone to asking the pivotal
question: “Where is God?”
So, how do we explain this enigma and the
paradox of God’s presence in human lives?
The reality is that God does not change. God
is always and will forever be who He is: God is constant and present. It is
only humans’ perceptions of God that constantly change under many different
circumstances.
Believing in God is a tall order because we
are living in a world not only of paradoxes but also of changes.
The paradox of
two-in-one person
You are a two-in-one person. As a matter of
fact, we all are, to a certain extent.
There are two persons living inside you: one
is your ego-self; the other is your spirit. They co-exist: your ego-self is
living in the physical or material world, while your spirit is living in a
totally different environment with a different dimension. There is constant and
continual contact and interaction between these two personalities.
Your ego-self is assertive, and even
aggressive, always telling you that you are separate from everyone else. Your
ego-self wants more of everything, not only to define who you are but also to
separate you from others. Your ego-self is judgmental, not only self-evaluating
but also assessing others through comparison and contrast with yourself. Your
ego-self is constantly shifting and shuffling back and forth between the past
and the future, instrumental in improving the ego-self in the past, as well as
in enhancing the ego-self expected in the future.
Your spirit is the other person living inside
you. Your spirit, on the other hand, is gentle and submissive in nature, always
nudging you to do what is right and to avoid doing what is wrong.
The paradox is that both your ego-self and
your spirit co-exist, and that each strives to dominate and influence the
other.
The classic illustration of the two-in-one
person is Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde. In the story, both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have a dark side within them,
where evil is always lurking underneath to surface anytime. In the end, it
turns out that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are actually one and the same person.
Given that the ego-self and the spirit
co-exist and that one can never totally get rid of the other, the
reality is that the more control the ego-self has over the spirit, the more
difficult it is to understand God’s presence, not to mention to attain His
wisdom. To unravel the paradox of two-in-one person, let go of the ego-self, or
at least diminish its control over the spirit, so as to feel more the
presence of God in order to seek His wisdom.
The paradox of
understanding
One of the reasons for the paradox of God’s
presence is rationalization. Man is a rational being, and understanding
is vital to believing.
According to St. Augustine St. Augustine Canterbury , a
well-known Christian philosopher and theologian of the eleventh century, also
echoed St. Augustine
“By faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen
were not made of things which are visible.”
(Hebrews 11:3)
The reality is that man has only limited
power of understanding. Therefore, let go of any pre-conceived concept or
rationalization in order to appreciate the presence of God, thereby opening the
door to further understanding the mystery of His presence.
Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau
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