Recently, I was challenged by one of my children for a polarization that had crept into my thinking. We see polarization all around us in our culture, and often the debates become so heated and hateful in the Christian community that any hope of Christlikeness is lost as tribal divisions and party loyalties divide us.
I long for a legion of divine armed warriors to make a round of appearances, to declare an answer to Joshua’s question, (Joshua 5:13-14) “Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” (Whose side are you on? It’s them or us, buddy!)
“And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” NEITHER SIDE!
That was what my child was trying to get me to see; there is a third option- it’s God’s showing up! I had laid out a particular scenario where two alternatives were all that I could see. Both were rather dreary and depressing, and I was prepared to accept either with teeth-gritting submission to the sovereignty of God. Because I had polarized my thinking that it HAD to be one or the other. The third option…
God could show up.
God could do a new thing.
God is a Father who loves to give good gifts to His children.
That -believe it or not- God might actually be capable of doing something I had not even considered.
Technically or maybe philosophically this mindset could be called engaging in a false dichotomy.
“A false dichotomy or false dilemma occurs when an argument presents two options and ignores, either purposefully or out of ignorance, other alternatives… (assuming that) they represent all of the possible options.”
My assumption had destroyed my ability to believe God could truly dig me out of the ruts in which I was prepared to be buried.
When you’ve struggled with declining options for seemingly forever, this mindset is despair in action. It’s definitely not faith. The widow who was out gathering sticks to make her final meal for herself and her son was at such a place. If she fed the bedraggled prophet her last meal as he asked- she died. If she cooked it for her son and herself- she still died, only maybe later. Despair had stolen her ability to see the third option was God showing up to fill the flour sack and the olive jar.
Even in the presence of great faith, we can still fall into this trap in our thinking. Take, for example, the three Hebrew children facing the fiery furnace. They told the king that God would deliver them from the fiery furnace or not. God decided to combine the two options-He did not save them from being thrown in the furnace, but he also did not let them die. AND He showed up to walk through the fire with them!
When Mary and Martha sent for Jesus when Lazarus fell sick, they assumed their friend would come and heal him, or he would die. Jesus did not arrive soon enough, and Lazarus was dead. Really dead. They only had two options in mind, but when Jesus (God) showed up- resurrection!
I guess what I am trying to learn is that my dilemma is false. Where I can only see two options, God has endless possibilities- like supplying physical needs, walking with me THROUGH the fire, and even resurrection. I like that third option!