Making Sense

Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of going out to breakfast with Nick and his dad, seeing that Nick was in town for a day. For some reason he and his dad got into a conversation about oxygen filters or something like that in trucks: a certain clue that I wasn’t much part of that specific conversation. Nick was trying to explain why these filters needed to be set up and labeled a certain way. He said that GM was stupid and they ranted on this for a while. Nick was getting a little bit frustrated with understanding how these labels worked. He sighed and said “But it just makes sense this way.” Nick’s dad looked at him, grinned and said “Just because it makes sense, doesn’t mean its right.”

A lot of things make sense to me right now. I have a lot of things going on in my mind and for the most part I think I do a pretty good job making sense of them. If something doesn’t make sense I’m even pretty good at making it make sense in my own way. I used to equate making sense with rightness. If it made sense in my head, it had to have been right. I was born in the church too, so I am great at justifying any action to somehow make it make sense biblically or to please someone older than me.

I guess I’m starting to realize that just because something makes sense, it doesn’t mean I should jump into it. It makes sense why I should plant a church, but should I start tomorrow? It makes sense why I should pursue a certain girl, but does that mean its right at the time? These things make sense, but at the same time, I know that sometimes these things aren’t right. Even if you follow the life of Jesus, the things that make sense aren’t usually the things to jump onto. It doesn’t make much sense why Jesus would wait so long before he healed someone. Or why Jesus miracle didn’t work one time and worked the next time. Or why he needed mud to heal someone. Or why he would make himself the lowest of low when he was in fact the highest. Or why he would flip tables one moment and cry in compassion the next. Jesus never made sense.

It’s like when I want to justify an action, I just have to make it make sense and then everything will be ok. Every time I end up learning the hard way and I kick myself because I knew what was right, I just never did it.

I just hope because I act one way because it makes sense and ruins things, that eventually what makes sense in my mind will actually be the right way to go.