When opposites collide, fragments fly. Order degenerates to chaos. No wonder we fight to avoid crashes. Take, for instance, the contradiction between the two ways people process information—literate-style and oral-style. Neither intelligence nor education matters. Twenty percent of us in the world would rather read than listen, but 80% would rather listen than read. We spend years mastering literate-style, but acquire oral-style as babies. Literate-style divides knowledge into categories and lists. Oral-style organizes life with context and chronology. Literate-style takes notes. Oral-style remembers stories.
For example, MAF aviation operations use literate-style procedures. The Cessna 206 engine-start checklist requires completing 10 steps in the right sequence–and that’s just one of 28 normal-operation checklists for that airplane containing a total of 223 steps. Regulations demand we read and comply with every step, in order, each and every time.
However, every flight also tells a story. A local pastor oversees flocks in several villages. On a flight to the first village, weather forces a diversion. At the second village, a man stumbles in from the trail just as the pastor arrives. Coincidence becomes serendipity as the wanderer finds new life.
But what if his village listeners only use oral-style? He can, instead, minister like Jesus who responded to a hostile crowd with the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) giving them familiar context and a chronology they could follow.
In fact, it turns out God’s ways often blend rather than smash polar opposites. He shows us a Servant who is King, and a Lion who is Lamb. Then, He sends us to confront our world with His kingdom. And that collision yields the best stories ever told.