CONFUSED OR CONVINCED?

Have you ever been around someone you were convinced that person was very confused.

CONFUSED—unable to think clearly; bewildered; disoriented; mixed up about reality.

I once dated a pretty girl who was convinced the sun and the moon were the same thing. I want to emphasize the past tense of the verb, “dated.” This was one and done.

My initiation into this strange belief happened on a stroll through a park on a beautiful moonlit night. She looked up at the evening sky, pointed at the crescent moon, and said, “I love how the sun changes its shape at night.”

I was startled. “What are you talking about?”

She replied that the sun transforms itself into the moon at night. “Don’t you know that?”

I laughed, thinking she was joking, but her face was sincere, her eyes curious, not crazy.

She continued her observation of God’s creation. She wondered if the sun just got tired of being bright all day and evolved into its moon clothes to rest at night. She imagined the clouds were like blankets the sun used to nap in the afternoon.

I went from amused to bemused regarding her astronomical observations. I shared I wanted to be an astronaut and fly to the moon. I expected her amazement at me having the Right Stuff. Instead, she expressed her concern that I better plan to travel at night and not during the day when the moon would be burning like fire.

I gently whispered that most people, including the most brilliant scientists, believed the sun was at the center of our solar system while the moon orbited the earth.

Her charming smile just dismissed my thoughts with her own question. “Have you ever seen an eclipse where the sun and moon hug?”

At this point, we were beyond correction. I was praying for a total blackout so I could escape undetected.

Instead, I thought some humor might bring her thoughts back to earth. I did my best Jimmy Stewart impersonation as George Bailey in the famous movie, It’s a Wonderful Life.

“What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word, and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.”

This girl was starstruck, but not at my humor or grandiose offer. She began to ramble on about how stars were just bits of the sun that break off when it rises in the morning.

I admit to my fascination with stars and the enormity of space. I challenged her to a game to see how many stars she could count in one minute. As she stared into the skies, I slipped away…I needed a stopwatch!

I learned something that night about blind dates and about life. Sometimes, the important thing is not about being right. (Oh my, how beneficial that lesson has been in marriage.)

Life is not always about being right. Sometimes, it is more important to see the world through someone else’s wonder. For one evening, I lived in a universe where the sun and the moon chased each other across the sky, forever the same, forever changing.

What good does that do? Well, it provided a spark to this writer’s mind that was stuck where the sun does not shine. I had nothing for this week. Probably still have nothing, but I amused myself.

Sometimes, we are confused about truth.

In college, I was convinced I could squeeze my way through a Humanities test by describing the portrait of the artistic sculpture as archaic because of its poorly developed eyes.

The professor reminded me that this featured art object was a famous bust of the classical poet, Homer. There was a reason for the poorly developed eyes. My instructor wrote across my test book in large red ink letters, “Homer was blind!”

I believe my professor was convinced of that truth. I thought about writing him a note about this date I had with a girl who thought the sun and the moon were the same thing…Maybe she was blind!

I know a man who was convinced he would not die. That did not work out well for him. I think he was confused.

What about that person who is convinced he/she is always right about politics, religion, cooking, music, or sports? I wish there were a way to convince them to take a moonlight stroll through the park with Miss Solar, the Queen of Lunarville.

WE ALL LIVE AND LOVE BASED ON THINGS FOR WHICH WE ARE CONVINCED TO BE TRUE.

CONVINCED: to be completely certain about something; evidence for belief; to accept something as true; absolutely persuaded.

WHEN THINGS GO SOUTH AND SOUR IN YOUR LIFE, WHAT ARE YOU CONVINCED ABOUT?

Are you convinced this world is against you? Are you convinced you got the short end of the stick? Are you convinced of anything?

THE #1 TEXTBOOK TELLS US ABOUT THE UNFAILING STEADFAST LOVE OF GOD ALWAYS WORKING FOR OUR GREATEST GOOD.

THEN IT ASKS A HOPE-REVEALING QUESTION: WHAT SHALL WE SAY IN RESPONSE TO THESE THINGS? (Romans 8:31).

I would be most interested to hear what you will say in light of your life’s story.

As for me, I join with the apostle Paul in exclaiming, “For I am convinced that nothing can separate us (you and me) from the love of God. Absolutely nothing“ (Romans 8:38-39).

For I am convinced and absolutely persuaded not by arguments or explanations or calculations or education or indoctrination but convinced by God, by who God is, by what God says, by what God has done, by what God has promised.

Standing outside with binoculars turned toward the sky, my four-year-old grandson, Cooper, stared at the varied cloud formations and made a very important observation. “It sure looks like Jesus is up to something!”

As I look back over my life, I see that Jesus has been up to something every day. I stand in amazement as I see how all the dots in my life are connected by those big divine conjunctions: And God…But God.

What shall we say in response to these things?

For most of us, our days of childlike wonder and youthful joy have been scarred by suffering, chilled by circumstances, and distorted by spiritually impaired vision. My prayer is that this Winsday Wisdom might become your spiritual binoculars by which you gain a new perspective into the darkened clouds surrounding your life.

I pray you will see the reality of hope that Jesus is always up to something good in our lives. Sometimes we just do not see the goodness—or feel it.

Real faith struggles with doubts and questions. Like hope, it ebbs and flows through highs and lows, but the source of our faith and hope never wavers, never shakes, never weakens, and never lessens.

Our God is unchangeable, immoveable, unconquerable, and unquestionable in His wisdom, rightness, and goodness toward us. Despair is not the end of hope; emotional darkness is where hope shines the brightest.

What shall we say in response to these things?

There is hope. It is not the stuff of wishful thinking or fantasy dreams. Hope is grounded in truth. That truth is revealed in God’s Word. It is real and relevant and reliable. It is supremely sufficient for your suffering and circumstances. It is like looking through spiritual binoculars of hope.

Hope: the confident expectation of experiencing all the future goodness God has promised you…somehow…someway…sometime.

Because of the future dynamic of hope, we have to learn to fight for that confidence in God during the present sufferings. We all struggle with the external forces of changing circumstances and the internal pressure of emotional stress. Even though God has promised us future good beyond our imaginations, there are times it feels as if God has forgotten us and it looks as if God’s love is absent from the scene.

There comes a time in all our lives when we cannot see and do not feel any hope; we need an outside voice to speak to us of truthful things blurred by our tears and numbed by our despair. If we are honest, we have all been there.

What do you do when it seems as though God has failed to come through for you?

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1).

What shall we say in response to these things?

In those moments when the sights and sounds of hope become distant memories, I can declare with the utmost confidence and unclouded hope, “It sure looks like Jesus is up to something!” I see it with the binoculars of faith. I observe it on the horizon. I study it in the clouds of witnesses. I shout it like a four-year-old full of hope and confident expectation of future good.

I am convinced because I know God better than ever before. I know God is supreme and sovereign. I know God is first and foremost in all my circumstances. He is before all things and above all things. God is the ultimate reality and unsurpassed value of all things earthly and eternal. God is forever faithful and trustworthy.

I am convinced in God and by God as I see how He works things together in my life for good. God did not leave me alone in my journey. He never abandoned me or left me without help and hope for both my earthly and eternal benefit. I am absolutely persuaded God will get me safely home.

As I look back on the road I’ve traveled,

I see so many times He carried me through;

And if there’s one thing that I’ve learned in my life,

My Redeemer is faithful and true.

—“My Redeemer Is Faithful and True,” Stephen Curtis Chapman

Do you think I am convinced of God’s unfailing love? I am convinced that nothing can tear me away from God’s embrace. Not life or death. Not space or time. Not anyone or anything. Not the supernatural, not even my own wrong decisions and actions.

I am convinced! Are you?