The Wrong Angle & The Only Solution

So, yesterday, my dad and I got into a funny little situation. He’d given me $200 as a birthday/Christmas gift. On Saturday, I used $18 to pay for our pizza. So he said he’d pay me that back. Then he bought me a $50 TV show set with his own money. I thus owed him $50. Cancelling out each other’s debts meant that I owed him $32.

With me so far? Good. So how much money should remain in my wallet? $168 ($200-$32) or $150 ($200-$50)? This was our conundrum. I reasoned that because I’d effectively already given him $18 for the pizza, I only needed to give him $14 for the remainder. So I gave him a second twenty and took $5 in return, somewhat equaling us out. Or so I thought.

He was convinced the total amount in my wallet should be $150. I thought my reasoning/math was sound, so I kept trying to explain why I thought I was correct. My explanations must’ve seemed so obtuse, because he started laughing (good-naturedly) and I couldn’t help but laugh too. We both needed that, I think. Thank you, Lord.

So, because I didn’t want to believe I was completely crazy in my reasoning, I took to a website and asked the question there. Got a couple of different responses. One flat-out said my remainder should be $150. The other said it should be $150 because I love my dad and he deserves me paying for the pizza. The implication of the second was that I might be technically correct but I should give him more anyway. I liked that answer.

In the end, I agreed that dad was probably right. So the total after change exchange resulted in a $150 amount in my wallet. A little later, sitting by myself, I realized I’d overthought the problem to an absurd degree, making simple math into a complex web. So I came back and told him that he had to be right and I was wrong. I’d come at the issue from entirely the wrong angle.

Why am I telling this story? Well, I thought it was sort of funny like the beginnings of a sitcom script. But also because I think it draws attention to the human tendency to make something out of nothing, to boldly proclaim a problem where there is none.

And more than that, I couldn’t help thinking that so much of life and the battle against self and sin is like that. We humans tend to overcomplicate the solution to our problems. We think we can pay away or make things right by overstepping ourselves. Out might will make it right, we think. If we just work hard enough, we can begin to put things into balance. But that’s a flawed view. And it’s not the work of the Lord.

The reason we humans are not in our right minds is because of sin. And because of our pride, our arrogance, we think we can solve any problem, including sin. So we labor in sorrow and suffering, thinking that a masochistic lifestyle will somehow right our standing with God. But it won’t. It can’t. Only the grace of Jesus Christ, His precious blood, given to us can make us righteous and justified before him.

“For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.” (1 Peter 1:18-19)

“But the Messiah has appeared, high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), He entered the most holy place once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:11-14)

So like my math/money issue, one can easily take the wrong path to salvation. Do not believe in the works of your hand. Trust not your own righteousness. Believe only in the forgiveness and salvation available through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and you will have eternal life.

Thanks and praise be to Him, for He is Holy, Just, and Loving. And thank you for reading this post. May you take from my story—and most importantly, the Scripture—something which edifies and encourages your faith in Christ. If it’s also entertaining for you, then that’s pretty cool too. God bless and have a good (peaceful) week.