Editorial November 15, 1993 Issue

From reason to revelation

Mary Metzner Trammell

Reason is a little like a two-way street. Depending on which way you're headed, it can lead you either Godward or earthward. At best, reason can instruct you, awaken your potential, and usher you step by step into the things of the Spirit. But at worst, analyzing and reasoning from a human standpoint can confuse you, snatch away your inspiration, and make you feel as if you've lost God entirely.

How do you know which way you're headed on the road of reason? The mental signposts you meet along the way will tell you unmistakably. If reason has been guiding you in a God-ward direction, if it's based on real love for God and all His sons and daughters, you'll just feel right—about the direction of your life, your career, your relationships. You'll be getting a progressively clearer vision of the Christ—the influence of divine goodness at work in everyone you meet or talk to. You'll find yourself wanting to live the kind of life Jesus did, helping people, healing them, giving them shining glimpses of hope by showing them that they're the children of God. You'll find yourself spending less time trying to figure things out solely on an intellectual level and more time listening to God. Less time trying to move toward God and more time knowing you're already with God.

Reason that's misdirected, by contrast, often focuses on self rather than on God. It amounts to rationalization based on the evidence of the five senses—willpower that leads to infighting and elitism. Its involuted, matter-based logic is the very opposite of inspiration and revelation. That's why this type of reasoning opposes Christ, as it did during Jesus' ministry.

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