Day 269 – Problem Solving

Problem Solving

During election time, the media is dominated by candidates promising to solve all the nation’s problems. I often think to myself, (and now I am thinking out loud to you), about how futile it is to think that fallen man, who created all of life’s woes, can hope to solve his problems by electing a fellow fallen man. Over the years, the cycle is repeated; promises to hope, hope to disappointment, disappointment to disillusionment and then someone else with a “solution” and more promises… and the cycle continues. Carl Jung, in his book, Psychological Types, concludes that, “all the greatest and most important problems in life are fundamentally insoluble…They can never be solved, but only outgrown.” In other words, instead of solving problems, people just learn to cope and go on with life.

Coping may be what most people opt for, at least it is better than going crazy or committing suicide, but it leaves one with a fatalistic, apathetic and cynical world view. I believe Albert Einstein hit the nail on the head when he said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” One must “get out of the box” to be able to transform hope into faith. One’s perspective depends on one’s position. A mountain may seem enormous at its base, but from an airplane it appears quite small. When we realize that we are “seated with Him in heavenly places”, (Eph. 2.6), and that we have been given power to tread over all the power of the enemy, (Luke 10.19), then our problems come into perspective and can be solved.

When Lazarus became sick, his sisters, Mary and Martha, called for Jesus to come and heal him. They had seen Jesus heal countless people and were sure that their brother’s problem could be easily solved. But Jesus delayed in coming and Lazarus died. Now it seemed that the problem had no solution and so grief overwhelmed them. Hope turned into despair. When Jesus finally arrived, Martha’s disappointment with Jesus overflowed when she said: “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11.21) She was looking at the problem at the level of the problem and overcome by unbelief. Jesus spoke to her from “out of the box”, when he said that he would rise again. Still on the level of the problem, Martha is trying to cope and be comforted by interpreting this “rising from the dead” to mean “on the last day”. Jesus lifts her to another level by saying: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live…” (John 11.25)

We so easily jump to conclusions when we are faced with a problem. We impetuously declare: “there is no cure”, or, “he will never change”, or “I’m broke”, as a means of coping with or running from our problems. Has it ever occurred to you that Jesus’s thoughts are higher than yours? That His ways are on another level than this world’s? He is not under the circumstances, as you may seem to be, but far above them. His Word that “heals all our diseases”, (Ps. 103.3), cancels the sentence of death a sickness may declare. Financial problems are not resolved by having more money, but by receiving the wisdom from above to make wealth, (Deut. 8.18). Gaining a new friend or getting married does not cure one’s desire for love. Love is from God. When faced with a problem, look up. Look to the problem solver.

Scriptures to meditate on:

Ps. 110.1; Is. 55.8-9; I Peter 3.22; I Cor. 15.27-28; Luke 10.19; Phil. 4.4-9