Biblical principles that don't make "sense"

The bible is riddled with paradoxes, ask anyone who has attempted to read the book of Proverbs lately.

A "paradox" as defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary is "a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true". Or simply put, they are those sentences that have us scratching our heads, like "What??? How can that even work out?". To say the least, paradoxes don't agree with our logical reasoning at first glance, and in today's highly humanistic society, many ignore these seemingly contradictory statements from the bible because simply put "it doesn't make any sense".

It takes a bit of faith to believe, and faith has nothing to do with reasoning and logic. Maybe this is why Jesus says in the gospel "This is the reason that I speak to them in parables: because having the power of seeing, they do not see; and having the power of hearing, they do not hear, nor do they grasp or understand". So maybe it's not the statements but our thinking that makes no sense - a hard pill to swallow if you have a strong conviction that you are a "logical person".

Well I am no pastor or teacher but here are a few biblical paradoxes I've learned just to tickle your fancy:

• If you want to be happy, help someone else.
• If you want justice, forgive and do not take revenge
• Give away what you want most, and get twice as much in return
• If you want more money, give away more money
• If you want more love, give away more love
• The greater the pain, the greater the reward
• Pity feeds poverty, persistence attracts wealth.
• A true expression of thanksgiving and appreciation is not to waste anything
• Tithing is not a religious requirement, it is an insurance payment
• If you want more time, rest.
• Contentment is not the absence of dissatisfaction, but rather the evidence of hope
• Conformation leads to defeat, transformation leads to victory
• If you cannot submit to authority, you can never understand how to be in authority
• Love has everything to do with sacrifice and nothing to do with feelings
• If you want to be a strong person, build a good relationship with someone else
• To be a good manager, you need faith
• To live by faith, you need a plan
• To be productive you need to stop being busy
• To gain wisdom, you need to be wise
• In order to understand, you need to have knowledge first.
• Your goals and your dreams are released from the inside out
• The narrower the path, the less burdened you will be

Truly His ways are higher and this my soul knows full well, feel free to add on anymore lessons in the comments :)