The Grandfather Paradox [A Guest Post by Seye Kuyinu]

Today I'm excited to have over at 'The Voice' my buddy, Seye Kuyinu whose blog I have always admired and whose heart [I know] is large enough to take in the world. He is a Poet, Music maker, Designer and a Professional techie. Seye's words have spoken to me in deep ways for many years and today it's a privilege to present them to you.

[Image via Pinterest]

Warning: This article is about how you read this very  article yesterday without knowing. This article is also about you reading this article while forgetting that you read it yesterday. And I will explain how.

For some reason, I stumbled upon a link that took me to a Wikipedia page that describes what is known as the Grandfather Paradox. Okay here it is(*rolls eyes*): According to Wikipedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox),  The Grandfather Paradox is this-  suppose a man traveled back in time and killed his biological grandfather before the latter met the traveler's grandmother. As a result, one of the traveler's parents (and by extension the traveler himself) would never have been conceived. This would imply that he could not have traveled back in time after all, which means the grandfather would still be alive, and the traveler would have been conceived allowing him to travel back in time and kill his grandfather. Thus each possibility seems to imply its own negation, a type of logical paradox.

If I had more androgen(the hormone that gives ladies the feminine character), I would have rolled my eyes more. Like seriously, why do people bother themselves with baseless thinking?

I didn't know I myself would be caught in this thinking because for more than a week I kept playing the different scenarios in my head, occasionally wanting to imagine myself fighting my great grandfather for land. Or maybe his wife. Soon,  it sounded like something I could fix up and write a poem about. In fact, it occurred to me that many novels(and movies by extension) have taken the inspiration that comes from this theory. Let's start with Denzel Washington's De Javu. Or even the highly grossing Inception.  Even Michael Crichton wrote a novel called Timeline.  He had this idea in play.

Like many of things I encounter each day, I find a way to relate lessons or scenario back to God, my relationship with him and spirituality in general.  I have gone past the phase in my life where thinking about how God came to be doesn't matter the least to me. If the Big Bang was true- matter colliding causing a big bang- how did matter start? Who created matter? Was there another bang that created it. Would it be possible for me to go back in time to become God? Silly question. 

Sometimes we need to remember that TIME is as physical as the wind. Not seen but so much there. God created TIME and when he did he made it govern a part of existence. He lived before time was created. But here is where I am going: the great book that I have so come to love, tells me that God knew me before I was born. He knew my action on this particular day even before the world began (Okay so if God knew me before I was born, he probably knows that I made a mistake with the last sentence.) If he did, he must have charted a course for my life. If he charted a course for my life and he's not controlling  me like a marionette, would I still fall through with his plans?

Okay let me rephrase. If the Bible says His thoughts toward me are not of evil but are of good to bring me to an expected end, will I actually end good?

We need to once in a while stop and think about who God is. Yes, we think about him as the All-in-All, the Omnipresent, we think of him as God-the-God. But God is huger than our small, fickle minds can ever conceive.  God is BIGGER than TIME. He can change time. He can MOULD time with his bare hands. But he did that before. Wasn't it him that made time? Wasn't it God who with the command of Joshua stopped the sun and the moon for a day? The consequence: the leap year. God is big! God is bigger than whatever our minds can  consider thinking. Even the Bible mentioned at one point, 'To him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can THINK or ask'. Gosh! Thinking about this blows my mind all the time!

So talking in the context of TIME, it has not been proven yet that we can go back in time. The Grandfather Paradox also concludes with the negatives and possibilities of a future past that can never be altered.  The Bible exposes us to what God teaches us about the past. God, through written scriptures, tells us that ALL IS OURS. In 1 Cor 3:21, he says 'all is yours,… whether the present or the future'. Notice how he doesn't add the past. This is just so beautiful. This present second is mine! The future I don't see in my grip is mine. I can make of it whatever I want. 

So for me, I am well aware of what God has given me and you… his Grace. God looked into the future and came back to the present just to tell me that he's the one that's able to keep me from falling (Jude 1:24). That fact has definitely added a bounce to my walk. It means I can walk freely, resting on his grace. That Grace means a whole lot to me. And like Paul had once mentioned, I should forget about the past and trudge forward.  I can forget about my past mistakes, accomplishments and accolades and just move on. In his own words: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal..(Phillipians 3:13). That future!

If you read this article from the beginning to the end, or you are just seeing this portion, it was arranged years before you were born, by some 'divine scheme' for you to read this.