Life Changes

Have you ever felt like you are at the gambling table of life when you suddenly get dealt the worst possible hand imaginable?  No matter how well you plan, or what kind of in-roads you think you may be making, you wake up one morning and suddenly find yourself facing seemingly dire circumstances.

It probably happens to most of us in some way, shape, or form.  For some of us it may seem more ominous and more devastating than it does for others.  At times you may even feel trapped and unable to see a way out.  You may wonder why your world is crashing down around you.  Or you may shrink in fear of the unknown or lose hope in all you know or those you love.

It is at times like these that your world view can make all the difference.  It is also at times like these that an understanding of Faith can help you in your wisdom and understanding of the world around you.

A friend of mine once wrote:

“If my logic thus far hasn’t persuaded you, let me try out a moral argument that will attempt to discredit miracles as proof of God’s existence.  By claiming to have experienced a miracle, such as a miraculously healed broken bone, or a complete remission of cancer, people are placing themselves into a precarious moral position.  I would suggest that it is folly to imply that God has intervened to mend a broken body when He doesn’t provide the same service for all broken bodies, or for that matter, to intervene and prevent the break in the first place (you knew I’d have to bring the omnipotence issue again).  Furthermore, to take this position to its most disgusting extreme, it is absolutely the height of arrogance to assume that God has intervened in the above circumstances when child abusers go unpunished every day.”

(The Word of God – A Logical and Moral Dilemma  pg. 161)

Yet my friend once told me that he had a lot of faith (little “f”) but not much Faith (big “f”).  Meaning his faith was in human kind (people) but not in God.

The argument is that if God were consistent (which, by-the-way, He is) there would be no (so-called) inconsistency with those that experience miracles and those that do not.

The failure in this line of reasoning is that it assumes that God somehow made a mistake along the way and that he suddenly needs to intervene in his creation to “set things back on their proper course“.

And yet it was the Founding Father’s of America themselves that determined:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Yet many of life’s circumstances are thrust upon us by the actions of others in our lives.  Here we are, trying to “pursue happiness” when we find our path blocked by those around us who are pursuing their own happiness.

When we find ourselves in these situations it can sometimes be extremely frustrating and we lose faith in humanity around us.  It is easy to have faith when things are going our way and the stars seem aligned along our path.  But it is difficult to have Faith when we seemingly hold a losing hand and there is little rhyme or reason as to the situation we find ourselves in.

It is at these times when the Christian world view can proclaim:

“Have faith in God, He’s on His throne,
Have faith in God, He watches over His own;
He cannot fail, He must prevail,
Have faith in God, Have faith in God.”

Because it is the Christian world view that understands that God is always in control, even when you do not believe he is.  God is in control when those around you are blessed and you are seemingly cursed.  God is in control when things go your way, or even when they do not.  God is always on His Throne.

My friend ought to have asked a more poignant question rather than why God does not perform miracles for all broken bodies.  He should have asked why some child abusers are even punished in the first place.  That is he should have asked what makes a particular wrong a wrong.

We do not necessarily understand all of the impacts of good and evil in our world.  We do not even understand why we are faced with seemingly impossible situations in our lives.  What the Christian world view does understand is that God is God, and he is always on His Throne.  And understanding that, having Faith in God, leads us to believe that no matter what the injustice, no matter what the heartache, no matter what the sorrows or trials within our lives, there is a bigger picture beyond us.  There is a God and his plan is perfect even when we cannot see it.

The Christian world view understands that we are experiencing the vastness of God’s plan and we are experiencing Him with each and every breath we take.

And if your world view contains no God, what do you have then?  Cosmic Chaos?  Just the matter of the Universe bumping around forcing all of the other matter around it along a particular course?  Even if that course seemingly contradicts the path that one might take in the “pursuit of happiness“?

I’ll go with God’s plan.  After all, if I’m wrong there isn’t a whole lot of meaning to what happens anyway.  And if your world view states that their is no God, then the “pursuit of happiness” is a vain effort in and of itself.