“Reasoning With Unreasonable People” by Rodney Tilley

This week I received a flyer in the mail which was advertising a workshop entitled, “Reasoning with Unreasonable People,” and to be quite honest, it really caught my attention. 

The pamphlet emphasized that “the program is designed to help you understand people we cannot “stand,” reason with others who seem “unreasonable,” and apply the art of the possible when living and working with “impossible” people.” So I was wondering, “who and how do we determine the people who are “unreasonable?”  

I mean, if I decide that abortion is wrong, am I being unreasonable? Or if I think that marijuana legalization will lead to an addicted America, and fear that we will come to look like the countries of Yemen and Columbia, who thrive on a drug culture; am I being unreasonable? If I think that stealing and lying are wrong, and that sexual immorality is a curse, am I one of those “impossible” people?

I know that if I go back and look at the words and works of Jesus, they always thought he too was “unreasonable.” He told us to love our neighbor as ourselves and not to take an “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”(Mt. 5) I mean how unreasonable can you get, for if your neighbor defames your name, don’t we have the right to defame his as well. If they do something to you, don’t we have the right to do something to them as well? That is just impossible, not fair! They deserve to get what is coming to them, or so it seems to those that are reasonable. 

Or take the words of Jesus again when he said, “love your enemy and bless those who curse you.” Now that is really unreasonable, as they are our enemies, so why should we treat them nice? And those scriptures about feeding the hungry and helping the poor. You know that people are poor because they want to be, and they are hungry for they refuse to work. I mean, is it reasonable to take my money that I work for and give it to those stragglers that come through Van Horn. They just need to get it together and get a life. 

And as I read the pamphlet again, it is those unreasonable people, those depressed, obsessed people, and those with borderline personality disorders that really make America sick. Why can’t they just get better? I understand that they feel sick and that is why we have doctors, so go get an appointment and get over it. Is that unreasonable?

As you can see in the previous paragraphs, I used metaphors and a play on words to write about how we sometimes think, and I wonder if it is true. I wonder who really is the “unreasonable?” The Bible talks of grace and forgiveness and that seems so unreasonable if you look at it logically, but that is the nature of God. 

He does not make sense in the classic sense, for He forgives the sin and loves the sinner. He loves the humble and despises the vain. He takes the foolish people of the world and makes them wise. In fact, God is the most unreasonable God I know, for he demands totality in our allegiance, and in love for all our neighbors. 

You just cannot reason with God for the “buck stops there,” and he always has the last word, and I guess that is unreasonable. Reasonable or Unreasonable, I guess you need to decide, but I hope you choose the side of our Lord; you have a good reason to do so. It may seem unreasonable, but it is the best decision you will ever make. 

For more information on the nature of God, please call Pastor Tilley at 432-207-0015.