When Common Sense Might Say Otherwise

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:7-14, NIV)

Common sense is something for which I have had to work very thoroughly to obtain. I was not born with it, nor was I able to grasp it at a young age. My friends and elders used to tell me when I was growing up that one is made up of a balance of being smart and having common sense. You'll meet some fantastic people who are not incredibly book smart but have an incredible amount of common sense that allow them to function quite normally in society. On the other hand, you have those people that are almost geniuses: they invent wonders no eye has beheld, create theories, write vastly unintelligble books, study music, etc., but these folk have trouble getting dressed in the morning. Luckily (actually, more by God's grace), I am able to dress myself every day. I am certainly no genius, but I tend to be able to retain information with little studying time and am usually a quick learner (provided they be complex tasks, not something like contra dancing, which seems to me to fall to the common sensical just move your body to the music and don't think about it...alas!...). I plan to bring this point around, I promise.

However, over the past several years at college I have worked to make up for this lack of common sense. I feel that I've done a decent job--I have lost some of my book smarts, so this leads me to the conclusion that I have more common sense now. Makes sense, right? Recently, I've been dealing with God in an interesting circumstance (I say recently, but I guess I mean for the past several years or so). God has been speaking in my life (which is quite awesome, I must say) and I've just now began to really listen. I am amazed at the miracles that I behold every day that God allows me life. I took my 4-year old neighbor to preschool this morning, and it amazes me, the raw humanity that he can express. Watching him run through the entire gamut of human emotion in 10 minutes reminds me of my more refined, sophisticated way of dealing with God. In the course of the past couple of weeks or so I've gone from super high to near rock bottom and God is still there, watching and providing and probably wondering why I don't just give it all over to Him. I've worked to obtain common sense, which tells me to worry and be concerned. It tells me the limits of my humanity and fights for self-preservation. And now God is calling me to let go, and if necessary, fight this common sense which leads me away from Him. Because to follow common sense and my human instincts, in this instance, would be to sin against my conscience and rip myself from the embrace of my Creator. And I won't do it.

I will die to myself this and God willing, every day. I shan't forsake this heavenward calling about which Paul is so intimately passionate. No, in fact, I shall press on toward the goal. And as much as common sense might say otherwise, I believe and yes, I do know, that Christ is much larger, much more omniscient, omnipotent, and sovereign than my own doubts and fears. Praise God, I am not my own.