I once sought to write a paper about God’s illogical ways. A wise professor challenged me to use the term paradoxical rather than logical. In a way, I think he and I were after the same thing, but he was right to push me away from the term illogical.

Logical conclusions arise through the rules of logic from basic assumptions and premises. God doesn’t act illogically, rather God operates from an assumption base that I had (have?) not yet fully adopted. God’s focus is the kingdom: the righteous and holy name of the triune God in intimate communion with those creatures created in God’s image. God is about expanding the family of God to see people come to salvation.

When things look odd to me, I rest on that truth: whatever God is doing is somehow bringing about the salvation of more people than otherwise. Why does God use humans as instruments to make disciples of those yet to believe? I wouldn’t do it that way but in God’s wisdom, the kingdom grows that way.

Why did Jesus continually delay revelation of his identity to those at the wedding and his disciples? Somehow, it grew the kingdom of God. Perhaps it was that the disciples weren’t ready, and wouldn’t be until the saw him arisen from the dead . . . then Pentecost . . . then the church.

When life gets confusing and you wonder why this or that, take a moment to pray about how the situation may be moving towards expanding God’s kingdom? How are you being equipped to make disciples? How can you deepen your trust in God’s goodness that God’s end will be far better than anything we can imagine?