New ideas

I was thinking about people not believing someone when they hear something that is a little out of the ordinary. They seem to just disbelieve by habit, for no good reason or with no real thought given to their position.

A woman I met told me that she and her sister hit the ice and headed for a sign at a fork in the road. She had no control over the car, she said. They both started to freak out. Next thing they knew they were right where they were supposed to be going down the road. There were two of them that experienced this. She said "I looked to see that she was okay and we both said, "I can't believe it!" They had believed they were going to crash and die.

They really had to believe because they had not crashed, they never even got hurt. Try as she could, the woman said, there was no sequence of memory from the sign being right there and then the clear road being in front of them. Her next thought was "Nobody is going to believe this." That was probably true. But why?

It's not always the contrary or negative in people when they don't believe what they hear. I see it as the way most people think. If there is nothing in their past experience to refer to they flip right to disbelief.

They have no personal knowledge of what you have shared. They never heard it before from anyone else. "I never heard of that" then seems to equal "that can't be true".

They skip research or askng for more details. It doesn't matter who is saying it to them. Trust doesn't come into it. They may trust you but if they decide you have wrong information - and it must be if they never heard of it - they plain just can't believe it.

It was totally new to them. Depending on their age and mind set, they may have trouble dealing with a new idea or thought. They want it all to fit in where their life has showed them it goes.

If they have to trust another person or their past experience what are they going to trust? That's right, they trust their own judgement.

It's all they can do in a world that keeps telling them to trust others will hurt them. They judge they can't believe it rather than explore it more.

It's not wrong to do that, it just makes it hard to share a new experience or idea with someone when they react like that.

Luke 5
37 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.

38 But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.

39 No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.

The new idea of Christ - that the love and grace of God was ours again if we only believed in His son - was hard for those who had lived so long under the law given to Moses. Some of them just couldn't believe it. Some of them didn't want to.

They were used to the law and it's ways and they didn't want to change; Especially those who made a living from it.

Those who felt the power of God's grace in their lives tried to share it with all they met. Some could accept the new idea and some couldn't. They kept trying to share it. It was real to them.

Matthew 13:33 - Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

Leaven is yeast or sour dough starter. You take a little bit and add it to what seems like a lot of flour and other things for bread. That little bit will make the whole thing rise up and out of the bowl if you don't use a large enough one.

The few people Jesus started with, in one little town, with the stories of his family and the belief of his cousin John, has grown to be what we know as Christianity all over the world. I think they were the "little leaven" and the "new wine". It grew, like a little yeast and now it has aged, like a fine wine, which gives it more credibility, not less, at least to my mind.

He said if you don't believe what I say then believe what you have seen me do. We have not seen the healing, the walking on water and the mysterious escapes written about. Or have we?

Almost every person I talk to has a story that they don't even know if they should believe. It's too far outside "real life" and most are shy of sharing it with others. Like me, they don't want to be seen as crazy or get laughed at. But we believe it and keep it to ourselves. To share a new experience or idea with others seems like a risk.

To share a new way of seeing God - what kind of risk was that? To say the law was repealed and we could be forgiven by just believing in Jesus was a hard new belief to share. It cost Jesus his life here as a person in a body, pain and shame and death. What does that show us of how much he loves us?

Sickness was lifted from just people, not kings, not rich men alone, but from those who came to him and asked, he cured, asking only for their love and trust in Him. He showed the power behind His belief to them so they could see it was real and then they could believe.

He healed things we still can't heal today. Limbs were made whole, the dead were brought back to life, whole and well again. Why? Was God wrong to let them die? Does God make mistakes? Why would He change His mind or His actions?

Was it only because it hurt Jesus' so much to see the pain in each heart? Is that why He could heal? His heart hurt for us in love and God didn't like the pain it caused in one He loved?

Those that were healed or raised from the dead by Jesus still went on to die later, in the way of humans. Did the fact that they were healed by Jesus really change anything down here?

Yes. They saw it could be done. They saw the love of God change their bodies and their lives. They told others about it. It was reported by more than one person. It was seen by hundreds. It was written down for us. The story of the one who loves all of us and lives to care today still touches hearts in mysterious ways. I think it was the yeast of the truth that God loves us.

Is that why we care for each other in love? Because we are made in His image? Our pain at another's pain shows it to God as our love for them. I think He helps them so that His power of love shows. They see we believe, they see what happened their way. Maybe then they come to believe in Him, too.

It also eases the pain in our hearts to see them have what they feel they need. He shows us that He cares how we feel. In His love He can lift that hurt from us. We were not built to hurt but to feel joy and love with Him.

We can not heal each other's hearts of the real pain in them. Only He can do that. You can tell them how it felt to you, you can show them the things you think were real to you but they have to reach to Him themselves.

He has to show them His reality in a way they will believe. Because we all see it differently that just amazes me. He shows He lives to all that come to Him and ask, "Help me believe."

Again, this is all in my own opinion and just one way to see it. Thanks really have to go to a friend for the good think I got from a story shared with me. This isn't what was shared but it is what I got out of it. I love my twisty mind!