From The Wrong Fix To The Real Issue

In order to solve a problem, you have to correctly identify the problem.

Because if you get the problem wrong, you’ll get the solution wrong too.

And when that happens, you end up applying the wrong solution to the wrong problem—leading to more problems. On problems. On problems.

“It’s like taking pain meds for a chronic condition caused by bad habits.
It works for a while. Until it doesn’t.” (Jameson Allen)

We never wind up satisfied, at ease, or filled with assurance.
We just live with a low-grade pressure humming beneath everything—especially when it’s quiet.

So we either sink into a madness we call “happiness” or bounce from one spiritual fix to the next.

Here’s What I Mean

At the center of reality isn’t a throne demanding performance or a system requiring obedience. It’s a table.

A Father, Son, and Spirit—laughing, loving, delighting in each other.
A friendship. Not a hierarchy. Not a program.

It’s called the Trinity. And it’s not just a doctrine—it’s your origin story.

We were created in the image of this Trinitarian God. (Gen 1:26-27)
Not to become good enough.
But to share in what they share—to live in the freedom of dependence. 

But that’s not the story we’ve been handed.

Instead of a table, we were handed a ladder.
Instead of presence, we were called to perform.
Instead of trust, we were told to chase knowledge—thinking if we just knew enough, controlled enough, we could finally become “okay.”

It’s the oldest lie in the Book. Literally.

In the beginning, there were two trees. (Gen 3-4)
One gave life. The other was about knowledge.

And the one that led to death? It wasn’t called the Tree of Rebellion. It was the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.”

Why was that tree not for us?
Because the desire to know, to have control over our destiny and the destiny of the world, is not something we were built for. 

Believing it is, is the timeless delusion that unravels the freedom faith was meant to bring. And that illusion, that desire to know all, to be God? It still shapes everything.

In short: we see ourselves and the world as it is not.

And it’s not because we’re dumb or hopeless degenerates. It’s because we’ve been handed plausible-sounding lies by others trapped in the same insecurity that comes from from trying to be in control.

We’re not just misinformed. We’re malnourished.
Starving for connection in a world that replaced the table with a task list.

But according to the One who made and sustains us (Col 1:15-20): Who we really are is someone who already belongs because He fathered us.

That isn’t a fairy tale.

It’s the one truth that makes every other truth true.

And when we forget it—or worse, reject it—we start solving fake problems with even faker solutions. We build cultures, governments, industries—even churches—on that illusion.

The result is always the same: shame, pressure, anxiety, exhaustion, division.

Enter the Gospel

What the Bible calls “Good News” isn’t just another religious option.
In fact, It’s not a proposition at all. It’s an announcement.

God isn’t a manager or a moral coach.
He’s a gracious Father.
A good one.

And this kind of grace?

It’s stop-you-in-your-tracks stunning. So free, it feels immoral.
Which is why most of us write it off as a cop-out for grace abusers.

But what else could it be?

Anything less is just another failed attempt to earn a belonging that was never up for negotiation.

God isn’t playing that game.

Because He alone is the covenant-maker and the covenant-keeper. And Jesus is the unveiling of His unrelenting faithfulness to the world He loves.

It’s why Jesus didn’t come to help us win.
He came to expose the game as a lie.

He didn’t show up to improve your strategy.
He came to end your striving.

You can trust a God this good because Jesus is unmasking you—
pulling the wool from your eyes so you can actually see the Father the way He does. So you can finally trust the Father the way He does. 

Do you see it?

If we start with what we think is the problem, then Jesus offers no solution.

But if we start with Jesus as the solution… then we realize the real problem isn’t our effort. It’s not our weakness, lack of knowledge, or failed performance.

It’s our misunderstanding of the gracious God who holds us.

We didn’t need a better plan. We needed a Person—crucified and risen. (Romans 5:10; Galatians 2:20)

No one expected a Savior who would die at the hands of the religion we wanted more than God—not so He could finally love us, but to show us He always had. (John 19:30; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:8)

And no one expected the Messiah’s resurrection—let alone that He’d return with the scandalous announcement that His resurrection wasn’t just His. (Rom 6:5; Col 3:1-4)

It was ours. (Col 1:20; Gal 2:20)
The world’s.
All along.

In Him, God and humanity—right now—are more united than we’ve ever dared to imagine. (John 14:20; Acts 17:28; Eph 4:6)

And that? Well... that changes everything.

Which is what the Truths in this framework are about.
It won’t answer every question.
But it will help you step beyond the church formalities built to solve the wrong problem—the kind that can’t afford to let God’s grace mean what Jesus meant.

Which is a real problem—because when the grace preached isn’t what Jesus meant, faith never leads to the freedom He gave.