Interesting word.
Whether you think about it or not, you deal with impossible all day, every day.
You come to a stop sign, look left, look right……there are no cars in sight and so you pull out into the intersection.
But you didn’t look up……. Why?
You didn’t look up……..because it is impossible that a car could come zooming down from the sky to hit you.
We constantly make decisions based on a set of assumptions that operate in the background…….. assumptions that never enter our consciousness. These assumptions make life easier…..and they usually work…….but not always.
Impossible is impossible…… usually……..but not always.
We believe that impossible is a black and white issue. Something is either possible……or it is impossible.
The trouble is that what we call impossible is based on a set of beliefs…….and more importantly on a set of assumptions. Those beliefs and assumptions change over time. Many of them are not correct in the first place. Many, that are correct today, may be incorrect tomorrow.
The simple truth is that the list of things that are impossible changes daily. Things that were once impossible are now possible. You can travel across the entire continent of North America in a few hours………not too long ago that would have been laughable.
In our secular world, an infinite universe operating on an infinite time frame is considered possible……..but the eternal life of your soul after your death is impossible.
So…….here is the moral of the story.
Impossible is a slippery concept to build your life on.
Impossible is a very dangerous concept to build your eternity on.
Galileo, among others, noticed that Mars sometimes moved backwards in its orbit. The culture of the day taught that this was impossible because the earth was the stationary center of the universe…….because everything orbited around us. Galileo was excoriated by the popular culture of his age………but he was right. He was right and they were wrong because the assumptions made by the culture were wrong.
Columbus sailed west and didn’t fall off the edge of the earth. This was thought to be impossible because the earth was thought to be flat. He was laughed at…….but he was right. The assumptions made by the culture, again, were wrong.
When I talk to a non-believer, they often will say, “you can’t possibly believe that the earth is only 4000 years old.” The subtext is, “you must be brain dead”.
Christianity is impossible because current science cannot account for a young earth……..or the resurrection of Jesus.
So……when someone tells you that something is impossible….when they laugh at you for the impossible thing that you believe………just remember Galileo.
If an idea is terribly important, don’t be put off……….because someone tells you that it’s impossible. Impossible just means that it is in conflict with the set of assumptions that they have made……..a set of assumptions that they probably can’t even list.
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Mark Twain……..et al.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Paul NIV
“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Jesus, NIV