Have you ever noticed that the Christian life often requires us to embrace the paradoxical nature of the Gospel? For Jesus to be faithful to his call or to ”secure victory” meant He had to endure the “defeat” of the cross along with all the contempt and ridicule along the way. Like Jesus, we too must live with paradox: that in dying we live, in giving we receive, and in letting go of control we battle chaos. On the front end, accepting paradox can seem reasonable but in the moment of trial or testing it feels like trying to catch a ball while looking into the sun. It is disorienting. The problem with paradoxical moments is we must die, give or let go first. The fear of the unknown can disarm our capacity to adequately welcome the difficulty in living paradox.