When Senseless Leap of Faith Brought Perfect Solutions

Some smart solutions to problems are just senseless leap of faith.  And the best thing to do.

We encounter challenges that call on us to just believe and act. Even when it happens that what we believe will work is just  glorified senselessness, at least, to those who don't feel the solution is reasonable.

For instance, it is foolish to believe that a 90 year old woman, medically confirmed to be chronically barren, will  still take in and give birth to a child. 

How was that going to happen? What is the justification to accept that a woman who has been barren all her life and in fact has long passed the age of bearing children, will become pregnant? What’s the justification for such?

There’s reasonably none. It is in fact a helpless situation reasonably speaking. That makes it foolish to believe that it can happen. 

But Abraham didn’t care that it was foolish to believe that his wife Sarah will take in at the age of 90 and deliver a baby . He didn’t find it stupid even though his wife laughed at the idea. But he believed it. One year later, Sarah had a son, Isaac [Gen. 18: 10-13]

 

As if the case of Abraham wasn’t bizarre enough, Jehoshaphat came along with his famous “Believe in the Lord and you will be established. Believe in his prophet and you shall succeed”

That was it and he was convinced that his faith and the faith of his team of dancing and singing soldiers will somehow defeat the vast troops of the  three counties that attacked his nation. There was no sense there. It was just foolish in every reasonable way. 

Warfare is  a scientific thing, that involves great training and use of scientifically tested strategies. Though leap of faith will still be needed to execute the strategies,  the one proposed and carried out by Jehoshaphat was an exception to every reasonable rule of war.

But he nevertheless led his small team of  soldiers to face the vast troops of Amon, Moab and Mount Seir. 

Somewhere in their battle  match, Jehoshaphat asked his team to start to sing and dance. And that was how the whole battle was fought and won. The troops of the three countries who came to fight Jehoshaphat perished. [2 Chron. 20: 10-13]

 

Then it gets to the woman from Shunem. She was wealthy. She had means. And somehow, she believed that inviting a stranger to live in her estate was a  cool thing to do and convinced her husband to build for Elisha, a place he will stay when he comes around Shunem. 

She was just being selfless. She just believed she should help. She did and her problem of being childless was solved permanently [2 Kings 4: 8-17]

All these stories show something in common—senseless leap of faith. 

Leap of faith explains the moment you have a strong push to do something. You know it is the right thing to do. But you can’t explain why it is the right thing to do. You feel it strongly that you need to do it and it will solve your problem. But every other person thinks what you’re saying  is just ridiculous.

Like in the case of David who believed that he will kill Goliath. Everyone who heard him thought he was just a crazy kid to think that he could do such a thing. And that can be explained.  David was just a small boy who has never been to war. On the other hand, Goliath has been a ruthless warrior all his life.

It made no sense in any way for  David  to fight Goliath. So when David told the king at that time, Saul, that he needs his permission to go and kill the giant, Goliath, Saul had to caution him instead. “Don’t  be ridiculous David” Saul cautioned “You’re just a small boy and Goliath has been a great warrior for a very long time” Saul explained. [1 Sam. 17: 33]

But David won’t take that. He narrated an instance he killed a lion that came to attack his sheep, as a proof that he means business, that he wants to kill the giant and that he can do it. Well, David killed Goliath

So what does smartness mean when faced with a  problem? Being smart means faith and action. It usually happens that sometimes, when the two are combined, they don’t make sense in any way. And even at that, they turn out to be the best thing to do.

The above is the best way to illustrate my career story. Including my role as a cofounder at Smatkaria.