Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.                                                                                                                                               Ralph Waldo Emerson

Insanity: repeatedly attempting the same task while expecting different results

I’m actually a fan of change.  I love tradition, but I have come to realize that we are meant for change; God ordained and even demands it, so it must not be so bad.  This is funny because I have been known to give a leading characteristic of myself as being “consistent.” I like for things to stay the same, but am usually excited when God says it is time to mix things up.

Have you ever watched someone put multiple coins into a vending machine and never actually get their Coke?  They put in the first one and nothing happens, so they think maybe something got jammed but one more coin should get it fixed right up.  Another coin.  Still no Coke.  Six dollars later, parched from the strenuous work of shaking, kicking, and cursing an enormous metal thief, they walk away with no refreshment in hand.

You know you’ve seen it–or done it.  You stand and watch and think, “You’re never getting that Coke buddy.  Move along.”  But they foolishly persist to their own dismay.

In many situations, before many a soda machine, foolish consistency is indeed insanity, the hobgoblin of little minds, the silly thoughtlessness of small thinking. Going about doing the same things time after time and expecting somehow for this time to be different; it is foolish consistency, needless effort, wasted time.

Our God is rather known for being counter-cultural.  His ways just don’t make any sense at all to us at times.  He demanded the impossible of His people, all the while knowing they couldn’t deliver.  He gave them the Law and called them to follow it.  No one could.  Only One ever has.  He called them to perfection, knowing that they weren’t capable of delivering it.

He sent the Law not to give us the standard that marked off who was and was not good enough.  It wasn’t like some qualifying time to discern which runners advanced.  None advance!  He sent the Law not to set the qualifying standard, but to make it abundantly clear that no one comes close to making the grade, there are no true contenders among us.

Then Christ appears, revealing just what the Father was thinking with the Law. And He calls us to a new “law.” He said, don’t just refrain from murder, don’t even think hateful thoughts.  Don’t just stay free of adultery, don’t even look lustfully. He took that old, impossible Law and applied it to hearts and minds as well as the physical actions of our bodies.  He took what was completely impossible and made it just a bit more difficult still.

Foolish consistency right?  I try and try and try to keep this Law.  I fail and fail and fail to get it right.  Is this insanity?

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are you ways my ways.                                                                                                Isaiah 55:8

Just when we think we have some things figured out, He goes and changes not just the rules, but the whole game.  All the sudden we aren’t supposed to fight for first, we’re aiming for last.  Without warning, the goal becomes out-serving rather than out-ranking.  Just when you thought the point of the game was to gain one’s life, you find the desire is actually to fully lose it.

And just when you think that foolish consistency is the perfect phrase for striving one’s whole life at a known, stated, understood Impossible goal, you find it is neither foolish nor even consistent.  Every day we are to attempt the impossible. And if we do that, every day will be different because we will be one bit closer to meeting that goal than the day before.  The only consistency will be in the fact of attempting.  All else is new and prospering, wonderful and adventurous.

Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with Him.                                                                                             2 Peter 3:14

Peter knows well enough that failure is in the plan.  He doesn’t tell us to do the impossible and Be Found spotless.  He tells us to make every effort to be found spotless.  Failures, disappointments, setbacks, and frustration aside, strive for the goal of spotlessness.

In a sense it is a bit crazy.  The primary goal of my whole life it to do that which I know for absolute certain I cannot do.  Only when my striving is done, this part of my journey is over, will success be in sight.  And still it’s worth the striving.

The goal is holiness.  May the reality of continually falling short never deter the fervency of the pursuit.