Two Kinds of Impossible

What does the Bible say about things that are impossible, and what can we learn from two kinds of impossible?

As we begin a new year, many of us are thinking of our goals and priorities for the year. Obviously we want to set some realistic goals. But what if I told you we should have some impossible goals as well?

Actually, there are different kinds of “impossible,” so let me explain what I mean.

The first kind of impossible

You’ve probably heard some of the many quotes about the impossible. For example:

• Vince Lombardi said: “We would accomplish many more things if we didn’t think of them as impossible.”
• Walt Disney said: “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”
• Then there’s a slogan of the Armed Forces: “The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.”

These all refer to the first kind of impossible. These are things that seem impossible to us, but turn out to be possible with extra effort, wisdom and creativity.

At one time people thought it would be impossible to run a 4-minute mile, but now more than 1,000 people around the world have broken the 4-minute mile!

I would have thought it was impossible to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope, but that’s been done too.

Have you seen a Youtube video of the Bruno Barn Move? That was another fascinating thing I would have said was impossible. A farmer in Bruno, Nebraska, got tired of his barn flooding all the time, and wanted to move it 115 feet to a spot on higher ground. The price for a commercial mover was out of reach, so he joked, if we had enough people, we could just lift it up and move it.

His son apparently didn’t think it was so funny. He estimated that the barn weighed 16,640 pounds and that a steel grid needed to move the barn would add another 3,150 pounds, bringing the total weight to about 10 tons. He figured it would take around 350 people, with each person lifting 56 pounds to move the barn.

So, during the 100th anniversary of Bruno, Nebraska, in 1988, 344 men grabbed hold of the many steel supports and moved that barn 115 feet!

This type of impossible takes hard work, creativity, endurance and—did I mention?—hard work.

If you have this type of impossible goal and have decided that it’s worth doing and worth the effort, that’s great! I applaud you in it and wish you the best. But this isn’t what I meant when I said we should have impossible goals this year.

A second type of impossible

There really are things that are impossible for men.

Jesus Christ talked about this after the rich young ruler asked how to have eternal life. Christ told him to keep the commandments, and the rich man said he’d already done this. What else did he have to do?

In real love, Jesus pointed out the thing the young man lacked: He needed to sell his possessions and give to the poor and follow Christ. But the rich man went away sadly, since he just couldn’t give up his many possessions.

Jesus told His disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God! They were shocked! They believed the rich should have the easiest time entering the Kingdom with all of their advantages. The disciples wondered who then could be saved. But Jesus said: “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

Yes, humanly speaking, it’s impossible to receive eternal life.

Overcoming sin and becoming like God seem like impossible missions for a weak human being—and they are! As Paul wrote, without the help of God’s Holy Spirit we can never please God (Romans 8:8).

So what do we need to do to access that help that makes the impossible possible? In Matthew 17 the disciples had been asked to heal a boy afflicted by a demon, but they couldn’t do it. So when Christ arrived, the father asked Him to heal his son. And, of course, Christ did.

So the disciples asked Christ afterward why they couldn’t cast the demon out. Jesus said, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

Growing in faith

When we realize it is totally impossible for us to do something, it’s good to know the One who does have the power to do the impossible! Faith is belief—firm conviction—that God can do the “impossible.”

We need God’s help to do the impossible. We need to pray, and occasionally fast, to draw close to the all-powerful God. We need to have faith—believe—that God can do it. Our little faith can grow as we study God’s Word that records the impossible miracles He has done in the past. We grow in faith as we remember and meditate on God’s power shown in His amazing creation and in answers to previous prayers.

Why is faith so hard to hold on to? Not just because it’s hard to wrap our minds around God accomplishing the impossible. It’s also because God’s answers are not always on our timetable: “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise” (Hebrews 10:36).

Receiving God’s amazing promises and receiving miraculous answers to our prayers is not about what we can accomplish—because we are helpless on our own. But it’s about patient endurance in faith—believing and hanging on until God does the impossible.

Yes, like Herbert W. Armstrong used to say, we need to work as if it all depends on us, but pray realizing it all depends on God.

So I hope this has helped you to look at the impossible in a slightly different way. There are things—like moving a barn—that seem impossible, but can be solved with human ingenuity and hard work.

Then there are the things that truly are humanly impossible. But if we seek God’s help, in growing faith and patient endurance, nothing will be impossible to us.

For more on faith, endurance and achieving the impossible, see:

• What Is Faith?
• Rising to Fight Again
• Is Anything Too Hard for God?

Mike Bennett coordinates the cogwa.org blogs. He and his wife, Becky, and two daughters attend the Cincinnati/Dayton, Ohio, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association.