I was recently interviewed about The Grand Paradox by Jonathan Merritt for a Religion News Service post on Faith and Culture. Jonathan is a columnist and the author of several books including his latest, Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined. You can read more by Jonathan on his blog and follow him on Twitter @JonathanMerritt. Below are the first few questions from the interview and a link to the full text.
RNS: You say that following Jesus is awkward and is supposed to be. Explain.
KW: The very nature of faith is tension filled. Walking by faith is foggy, unclear, and rarely comes with a sense of what the outcomes are. Just think of a time when you closed your eyes or were blindfolded, needed someone to steer you, and were groping with your arms for any wall or door jam that would tell you where you were. We don’t like tension so we look for ways to relieve it. Choosing faith, however, is choosing to stand in the tension and wait for God to be the resolution to the awkwardness we feel.
RNS: How are God’s ways “contradictory?” Doesn’t this create a hurdle for those who see faith as rational and logical?
KW: There are many paradoxes in scripture. Because of our intuitions, expectations and how we’ve been socialized, the ways of the world are counter-intuitive to God’s ways. In faith, we give to receive. We die to live. We lose our life to find it. The weak will be strong. Suffering can be a blessing. The last will be first. Faith embraces paradox and trusts that God’s ways are indeed the best.
You can read the rest of the interview here.