Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Tuesday August 17, 2010

As a man, husband, father and pastor, I constantly face problems. Most of the problems are important for in each of the above listed responsibilities, life and death is in the mix, especially in the husband role for just one wrong look, word or action can mean months of isolation and murderous thoughts.

Dealing with problems is a great American pastime. We do all sorts of goofy things in attempts to solve problems. We pass them off to others, deny they exist and hope they go away, or we will somehow outlive them, live them down, move to a new location, change mates, put the kids up for adoption. We will do anything but face them.

While facing our problems for what they are, facing or "owning" them is but the first step. The next step is back to first base: what am I going to do?

Believe it or not the Bible teaches great problem solving techniques. The most prominent one is the most overlooked one. Strangely, Albert Einstein commented on the principle, though I doubt he knew he was parroting a biblical principle. Here is what old Albert had to say:

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

A higher level of thinking? Is this possible? How?

My long time pastor and friend, Dr. Tom Wallace was fond of saying,

"You can't outrun your problem, but you can outgrow it."

Einstein meant the same thing, though as Christians we can apply the principle Peter teaches in 2 Peter 3:18:

But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Growing in grace and knowledge is in effect outgrowing the tyranny of problems, because as we grow in grace we take on more ability to as Paul said in Philippians 2:5:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Christ's thoughts are higher than ours, thus as we grow in Him we reach higher levels of thinking and are more capable of solving problems created at previous levels.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2010 Use with credit

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