The central idea of Christianity is that Jesus died and then rose from the dead and that this act pays the penalty for all of our wrongs.

From a logical point of view this has always seemed like a bit of a stretch. The idea that one man, two centuries ago, could do something that saves me from myself today seems……well…….impossible. Not to mention the fact that the resurrection itself is impossible. But, impossible may very well be the entire point. We are constrained…….God is not. When a non-constrained God drops into a constrained world…….impossible things happen. The Christian accepts this duality. The secular humanist does not. The Christian believes that nothing is impossible for God. The secular humanist believes that God is impossible.

What follows is my opinion……..an op/ed piece. You’ve been warned.

Because the resurrection is hard to deal with from my side of the curtain……..I want to explore it from the other side of the curtain…….from God’s side. This is dangerous turf…….because I am going to try to understand the resurrection from God’s point of view. My prayer today is that I get it right.

The basics:

God is love
God is truth
God is justice
God is mercy

I begin at the beginning…….why did God create in the first place? God built an amazing, self-sustaining ecosystem. He put man in charge and gave him intelligence and free will. If God’s first character trait is love and love requires relationship……..I believe that God created all of this so that he could have relationship…….with man. True relationship requires free will on both sides. I can program my laptop to talk to me and to tell me that I’m smart and handsome. But, that is not a relationship…….it is just me using a surrogate to talk to myself. Relationship requires independence. Relationship requires the other guy to reach out to you……not because they have to…….but because they want to. Relationship is a gift…….perhaps the most valuable gift in creation.

I believe that God created all of this……..in hopes of receiving the gift of relationship from you……and me. Relationship could very well be the one thing that satisfies God’s greatest desire.

God created……..then he set us free.

And we messed it all up. Instead of offering God the relationship that he had planned for…….we pursued our appetites……..and ignored him……or worse……denied him.

God responded out of his love and his mercy. Instead of destroying it all and starting over, God created the resurrection. The purpose of the resurrection is create a path for us to give the gift of relationship to God in spite of our ongoing failure to live up to his expectations……..to approach God…….with confidence……without hypocrisy.

The resurrection is not a gimmick that God uses to sneak his mercy past his justice.. Rather, it is a tool that allows us to set aside our brokenness and legitimately approach God. It is not something that God needs……..it is something that we need.

So……..what is our correct response……to the resurrection?

Our correct response to the resurrection is to give to God the thing that he was after in the first place.

Relationship.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live”

Jesus, John 11:25, ESV

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;

Paul, 2 Corinthians 5:18, ESV

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Paul, Hebrews 10:19-22, ESV

Right now I’m sitting up against a huge oak tree in my back yard. I’m taking a break from shoveling up wood chips from the stump of what was once an even larger ash tree. The view is spectacular. Oak leaves overhead, grass at my feet, unmown pasture in front of me, and woods beyond that. There is a sassafras grove in the distance and a walnut grove at my back……..it really is heaven on earth.

My first thought is that I am richly blessed, that this beautiful place is my home…..that this place is mine.

But that just isn’t true……..it’s not mine. I’m 70 years old and in 10 or 20 years……30 at the outside, I will be dead. Everything that I have ever bought……everything that I ever will buy…..everything that I own…….or think I own……..will soon belong to somebody else. At best, I am simply a custodian of all of this stuff. You may very well be younger than me. You may still be in that “immortal” phase of your life……..where death is so distant that you just don’t give it much thought. You may still believe that you own all of the stuff in your life. But……. the same logic applies to you too. The time frame is just a little different. The end point is just less clear.

It goes one step further. Not only is all of this stuff not mine……..this is not my home. My entire life here is just a brief stopover en route to someplace else. In a way, I am a sojourner………a refugee.

You may live in a place that is not as nice…….a small musty basement apartment with a shared bathroom (I’ve been there). Or, you may have a vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard. The point is that your current circumstances are not important…….no more important than the circumstances of the guy with the little sign on the exit ramp. They don’t matter because they are temporary.

And this is the heart of the Christian attitude to stuff.

Your stuff is nice. You should enjoy it. You should be grateful for it. But, you should never allow it to define you…….because you are much more than your stuff. And so is the guy on the exit ramp. You are the son or daughter of a king.

And that is your true home.

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Mathew, 6:19, ESV

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Mathew, 16:26, ESV

And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Jesus, God and a rich man, Luke, 12:19

You can pretty much divide the people of the world into two groups: those who believe in a creator….God…..and those who don’t. I am a Christian and I believe in the God of the Bible, the trinity, eternal life, heaven and hell. Those who don’t believe in a creator generally use science and technology to explain things. So far so good.

The trouble is that there are things that cannot be conclusively explained……by either group:

How did the universe begin?
How did life begin?
What happens after we die?
How does the death and resurrection of a man 2000 years ago buy my salvation?

The creator group relies on faith to fill these gaps. The no-creator group relies on unproven……possibly unprovable theories to fill the gaps. So far so good…….if we are being honest about it.

This is a black and white decision…….there is no middle ground. Either there is a creator……..or there is not. One group is right……one group is wrong.

So far this is a nice clean intellectual debate.

But, as is often the case, it’s not that simple.

There are things that are attached to each belief system.

If you buy into Christianity, you get the promise of eternal life……either in heaven or in hell. You also have to deal with a creator who has expectations……and rules….like the ten commandments. These can be summed up: “Love God….Love man”.

If you buy into science and technology, you get a series of explanations most of which are rock solid. But, as I mentioned earlier, many are best guess theories based on other best guess theories. In a way, just like the Christian, you will have to accept these theories on faith.

So far the two belief systems are on similar footing.

So…….just what is the difference? What is the wedge that forces us to pick one or the other.

The sticking point is this: the creator…….and his expectations.

The creator group accepts the creator and recognizes his expectations as valid. The no-creator group rejects the creator and does not accept any of his expectations……any of his restrictions. For the creator group…..the creator is in charge. For the non-creator group……we are in charge.

And there it is. We choose to join the creator side based on our willingness to submit to the lordship of a creator who has expectations……demands…..that cover every corner of our lives. Or…..we chose to join the non-creator side based on our desire to be the one who makes the decisions…….the one who makes the rules.

And then, we accept……on faith…….the unprovables that our belief system requires.

But…….there is one more facet……one more unprovable.

Death

What happens when we die…….and we will all die.

The creator side offers eternity in paradise based on a condition……that you believe in the creator. The non-creator side offers the absolute certainty……..of dead black nothing.

For the creator believer, we get the promise of eternity in paradise in exchange for submitting to a God who demands that we love him……and love each other.

For the non-creator believer, you get to make the rules and run the show for 70 or 80 years…….and then……there is nothing.

It all comes down to the question:

What do to want?

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!

Paul, Romans 1:24, ESV

I didn’t have much to say today. The post I had planned was……..weak. So I went outside and started weeding one of Cindy’s plant beds. If you’ve seen our house, you know this is a big deal. I know…..it’s Sunday?!?

The bed in question is a large sea of vinca minor with lots of bushes…..many of which I cannot name. The vinca makes a nice ground cover……never needs mulching……pretty green color…….it spreads to fill the bed……..and you just cannot kill it. The trouble is that other vines get into the vinca…….and the only way to get them out is to get on your knees and weed the bed by hand. Not my favorite chore.

After a couple of hours I was spent, but the job was done. I did a walk through……admiring my work…….and I saw one five bladed leaflet in the vinca…..one leaflet of a weed. My first thought was “close enough for government work…….I’m done!” But, I tracked the weed down to its roots and started pulling. It had a “runner” and was connected to a dozen or so other weeds that I had missed. Then I saw another leaflet………and another. By the time I was finished I had pulled 100 or so more weeds……all of them missed on the first go-around.

One of my beliefs is that when something is repeated over and over…….it’s important. This is true in life……and is especially true in the Bible. So I made a new “rule for weeding”. Never ignore a single leaf of a weed…….even in a field of a million vinca leaves.

Then it occurred to me. Sin is just like the weeds. You look through your day and see a million tiny events…..interactions……that are good. But sitting in the middle of it all is one tiny error…….one bad moment…….one sin. You say to yourself, “no biggie……on balance…..I’m a good person”. And, no doubt, you are.

The trouble is that the one tiny sin……..just like the weed…….is connected to another sin…..and another……sins that you hadn’t noticed.

No tiny single leaf of a weed is unimportant.

No tiny single sin is unimportant.

They are important because they all are connected…….to a living growing organism that…….if left unchecked…….will take over your garden……..your life.

So……my charge for today is this:

Take the little “wrongs” in your life seriously because they are alive……and they never travel alone. Any time you find yourself saying, “but, I’m a good person”……..look hard at the situation because there is probably something that needs fixing……..there is probably a weed that needs pulling.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

Paul, Romans 3:23, ESV

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

John, 1 John 1:8, ESV

Intelligence……..the ability to figure things out……to connect the dots……….to work your way from point A to point B……by a logical series of steps.

Faith……..accepting the realities of point A and point B without logical proof.

Truth……..ideas that are real……whether we can prove them or not…….whether we like them or not.

My Bible reading today is from Corinthians:

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not —to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”

Paul, 1 Corinthians 18, ESV

The message here is that intelligence often leads you to one place…….while faith leads you to another. The burning question is not which is better……intelligence or faith. The burning issue……..the life or death issue…….is which is true.

The lesson of 1 Corinthians 18 is that if you use intelligence as your only tool to sort out your position in the cosmos, you will exclude faith……..even if the lessons of faith are true. Intelligence is a valuable tool. But so is faith.

If the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer……..pretty soon all of your problems start looking like nails.

Me…….redneck wisdom

We live in a culture that is increasingly intelligence driven. The more we learn……the smarter we get……the less we rely on and trust in faith. But, if you dispassionately look at the results of our intelligence driven culture, you must conclude that it is failing:

Crime
Anarchy
Homelessness
Refugees
Governmental corruption
Environmental degradation
Drugs
Recreational sex and its stepchild….abortion

The promise of intelligence is that technology will solve the problems.

The promise of faith is that only love will solve the problems.

I am an intelligent guy……..but my intelligence will not save me……..neither will yours.

Love is truer than knowledge…….love is truer than intelligence. Love grows out of faith…….not out of intelligence.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Paul, 1 Corinthians 8, ESV

Years ago……in what seems like another life……I was in the army. I was a company clerk and one of my jobs was to go to the clerk in the unit above mine and get the mail. I discovered that I could bypass the clerk above me and go to the clerk above him and ultimately, the clerk above the clerk above me. This cut a day or so off of the mail delivery…..everybody won. My Sergeant found out and chewed me out. He yelled, “Listen SPECIALIST…..you will not cut that corner!” The key word was “specialist”. His point was that, as my Sergeant, he had authority over me….a mere specialist. He made the rules. The fact that my plan was better for all concerned…..didn’t matter. It was all about authority…….submission…….and rebellion. He had authority that I lacked. He had this authority because it was given to him by those above him.

Authority, it turns out, is the central issue in the biggest failures of our culture. The refusal to submit to authority, rebellion, is central to the decay in our culture. Authority creates an orderly society. Rebellion leads to anarchy. Think back to your childhood. What was the one line that your parents used that absolutely drove you crazy?

“Because I said so!”

In other words…… “Because I have the authority to decide……and you are required to submit to my authority…….this is non-negotiable”.

Authority:

Legitimate power, decision-making capacity, and the means to cause others to obey.

Oxford English Dictionary

So…..how does authority work? Someone above you has the authority to oversee you. They delegate a bit of their authority to you and you use that authority to oversee those under you…..and so on……down the ladder.

But what about up the ladder?

Authority is given to you by someone who has more of it. Authority flows downhill. You cannot create authority. Any such attempt at self created authority……is illegitimate. Authority begins at the top. Authority is created only at the top. But, just who….or what, is at the top of the ladder. Who is the ultimate creator of authority? It turns out that the creator of authority is the creator of everything else.The ultimate authority is the entity who makes all of the rules and who answers…….to no-one.

Master……Lord…….God…….Creator

It is in our nature to chafe against authority……to rebell. This is “the dark side” of free will. But, in order to rebell against external authority, we must create our own independent internal authority. And because we lack true delegated authority…..our self created authority………our rebellion is illegitimate. To create our own authority, we need a workaround……..and so we deny the true source of authority……or ignore it. And that is where our culture is today. We deny or ignore the authority of our creator.

That is why our cities are crumbling. That is why we kill 3,000 children every day. That is why human trafficking creates more slaves today than ever in human history. That is the reason for war, homelessness, hunger, mass shootings. Every evil in our world can be traced back to rebellion against the authority of our creator……..to denial of the authority of our creator………a creator who gives us two rules……love him……love each other.

We rebell………and we make a mess.

And yet…….in our rebellion……which, by any rational accounting, is a dismal failure……..we tell ourselves that we have it all under control.

How’s that working out for you?

“when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Satan, telling to Eve to ignore God’s authority, ESV

“It is in your nature……to destroy yourselves”

The terminator.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Jesus, ESV

For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.

The centurion, discussing authority with Jesus, ESV

Long ago, there was a mentally ill woman. She was deemed unsalvageable and was caged in the basement of a mental institution. One day, as an act of kindness, a cleaning woman baked some brownies and left them by the door of the cage. This began a chain of events that led to her recovery. As an adult, she repaid the kindness by helping another incorrigible young woman. And so began the friendship of Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller.

All of this came about because of a small act of kindness, that, to this day, went largely unnoticed. This is often, if not usually, the case. I think that it is safe to say that we rarely see the long range consequences of the little things that we say and do every day.

We are presented with opportunities like the lady with the brownies every day. We often let them slip by. But, even when we act on them, we rarely see the full ramifications of what we have set into motion. In junior high, I was at the very bottom of the social pecking order……shy, lacking confidence, not very happy, going nowhere. One day, one of the cheerleaders…….arguably the most popular girl in the school……..smiled at me……and she said hi! She walked on and never thought twice about it. But that 2 second interaction changed the trajectory of my life. It was one of 2 or 3 key events that shaped me into who I am today……for better or worse.

People talk about “the butterfly effect”. A butterfly in China flutters its wings. This begins a chain of events and consequences that lead to a hurricane in the Caribbean. As it turns out……..there is a social version of the “butterfly effect”…….and we participate in it daily. We have hundreds of interactions with other people. Each of these interactions, in some small way affects……and changes…….the other guy. And that change spreads out through his interactions…..and so on. And we never see the final outcomes.

The tiny, seemingly inconsequential, interaction with a friend, relative, or even a complete stranger can set into motion a series of events that changes a life…….or possibly the history of the world. Imagine a small kindness in the childhood of Adolph Hitler. Maybe we would remember him as a painter today.

I fully expect, that someday, when I arrive in paradise, I will learn of the long term outcomes of my actions. Someone will walk up to me and tell me a story…..like my cheerleader story……and thank me for a tiny kindness that enhanced, and maybe changed, their life.

Unfortunately, I will also find that there are things that I have done……..that have caused harm.

So……the challenge for us is to respect the potential outcomes of the small things that we say and do to the people around us every day.

We are far more powerful than we know.

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Paul, ESV

you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

James, ESV

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Paul. ESV

The primary rules of Christianity are:

Love God…….Love man

There is a third rule. This rule is repeated many times in the Bible……..that means it must be very important.

Fear God.

We like the first two rules. But, rule number three……..not so much.

Today I want to explore……..”Fear God”.

Most Christian teachers say that this means to show reverential respect. That explanation has always seemed a little strained to me. There are better words for respect…….than fear.

Could fear………..actually mean fear?

We like to believe that all good things come from God and all bad things come from Satan. Love God and fear Satan is a good starting point for a Christian. But I am left with a nagging doubt about the “fear means respect” translation. What if fear actually means fear?

We love good things…….we fear bad things.

I think that the confusion may come from how we define good and bad. We typically think of good as something that makes us happy and bad as something that makes us sad……….now, or next week, or over the next decade. But what about the next 50 years? What about eternity?

Consider an extreme hypothetical:

A pastor who has served God well for decades suffers a setback…….his wife is killed. In a moment of weakness, he lashes out at God. He is just about to commit an act of blasphemy against the holy spirit…….the unforgivable sin………but he drops dead before he can. God takes him……before he can damn himself. We generally consider death to be the worst thing that can happen…….but, in this case, is his death bad…….or is it good? After all…….his untimely death…….saves him from hell. It takes him to paradise…….for eternity.

I think that rather than redefining fear………we need to redefine good and bad. We need a more mature understanding of good and bad.

We need to think of good as something that promotes our well being……in the long run…….in an eternal time frame:

Good is something that someone who loves us does for us or to us……to help us or to rescue us……possibly from ourselves………in an eternal time frame.

Imagine God……sitting in heaven…….during the crucifixion. He looks down at his only son, beaten to a pulp, bleeding and suffocating on a cross…………and says to himself……”this is really good…..the best…….it’s turning out just right……..I love it when a plan comes together!”

Not the picture you were expecting is it. The hard truth is……that for mankind…….the crucifixion was a good thing…..the ultimate gift from a creator who loves us. The crucifixion……..the first step in the resurrection……….was the first of the two best things that ever happened in human history. Denying the crucifixion and the resurrection is the most bad thing……….the most damnable thing………that we can do.

Imagine you are God, you sacrifice the most important thing in your world……to rescue a bunch of people…..whom you created…….and they don’t even admit it happened……much less say thanks.

Enter justice.

God is love. But he is also justice. Both are immutable faces of the creator of the universe. We love the love part……we hate the justice part. But, the sad truth is that our behaviour creates a conflict between God’s goodness and his justice……..every day. Our encounter with God’s justice…….is entirely our fault……..not God’s fault.

Back to fear.

Fear is a protective emotion that helps us to avoid bad things and steers us toward good things.

It is appropriate to love God’s goodness.

It is equally appropriate to fear his justice. This makes far more sense than trying to define it out of existence. This makes far more sense than trying to “dumb down” God’s justice so that we can live as we please.

Out of his love for us………God created paradise.

Out of his justice……..God created hell.

We should love God’s goodness……his love for us.

But, because we all have a streak of evil in us, we should also fear his justice.

Love God’s goodness……..Fear God’s justice.

This is what the Bible means when it teaches us:

“Fear God”.

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.

Jesus, describing the father. ESV

So we went on a vacation about a year ago………great restaurants…….great food……it was fabulous. And I gained 10 pounds. My doctor told me I needed to lose the weight……….big surprise. For a year, I tried to shed those 10 pounds…….no luck.

Weight loss, in theory, is incredibly simple……..in practice……not so much.

The hard truth of weight loss is this:

If you stop eating…….you will lose weight. This is absolutely true and it is non-negotiable.

The practical reality is that we don’t stop eating. For a year, I didn’t stop eating……..and I wondered why I didn’t lose the 10 pounds.

Why?

Because I lied………to myself. Because behind every failed diet is a failure to stop eating. And this failure is based on lies that we tell ourselves.

I ate a simple breakfast, toast and coffee. I had a light lunch, a bowl of soup. I had a regular dinner…….with a second helping. And I snacked a little in the evening…..cheese (1/4 pound)…….and a little summer sausage (1/4 pound)…….and, of course, you have to have a sleeve of crackers to go with it.

I told myself that the second helping at dinner wasn’t important. I told myself that I deserved the snack because I had been so good at breakfast and lunch. These were lies…….the worst kind of lies…….lies that I told myself.

If you have ever tried to lose weight…..and failed……you are guilty of lying too. Don’t feel bad……you are in good company. Besides that, there is a multibillion dollar industry selling the lie.

The simple truth is……that we lie to ourselves……..all day……every day.

That rolling stop when there is no other car in sight.

Driving 75 in a 65mph zone.

Using the handicapped parking spot…….when you are not handicapped……for just 5 minutes.

The lies?

“This really isn’t important.”
“That rule is stupid.”
“It really doesn’t hurt anyone.”
“It’s no big deal.”
“I can handle it.”

BTW this is just a taste of one day’s worth of lies that I told myself…….yesterday.

This post, it turns out, isn’t about dieting at all…….you probably guessed. It is about lying…….to ourselves.

When you do something wrong and tell yourself, “It’s OK”. You are actually doing 2 things wrong……..the act itself…….and the lie that you tell yourself to justify the act. It may very well be that the act itself really isn’t a big problem……..but the lie IS a big problem.

Lying to yourself is a big problem because the little lie that you tell yourself today makes it easier to tell the next little lie……and the one after that. Until, one day you find yourself telling yourself a lie that isn’t so little. Then you tell the big lies……the lies that can destroy you.

My drinking isn’t a problem….I can handle it.

Cigarettes don’t kill that many people.

Lying to my parents is OK……it’s none of their business anyway.

Then one day you find yourself with your girlfriend sitting in the waiting room of the abortion clinic…….and you say, “this is for the best.”

And you wonder….”how did I ever get to this point?”

You may still commit the act………but you owe yourself the truth………….you owe it to yourself……..to say to yourself………”this is wrong.”

Our society does not allow us to tell the other guy that his behavior is wrong. Even worse……….we are losing the gift of telling ourselves that our own behaviour is wrong.

So…..today……. find a time when you are getting ready to do something that just isn’t quite right. And tell yourself…..”this is wrong”. Even if you still do it…….you will have taken a small step toward honesty…….honesty with the most important person you will deal with today……. yourself.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Solomom, ESV

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth

Paul, ESV

I recently made a post based on a cow that I saw for a few seconds 40 years ago.

Today’s post is based on a movie that I saw one time, 50 years ago.

“The Brotherhood of the Bell”.

The synopsis is this: A guy joins a fraternity. After college, he goes on to a sucessful career, marries a beautiful woman, and lives a life where everything just falls into place. One day, an old fraternity brother asks him to do something that is really wrong……..and he does it. His act leads to the death of an innocent man. Racked with guilt, he renounces the fraternity. And then his world falls apart……he loses his job, his wife leaves him, and more. It turns out that all of his successes in life were orchestrated by the fraternity. He was never in charge. His triumphs were the work of an outside entity. He did have some autonomy……but most of his life was planned and executed……..by an outside force.

So…….do you ever wonder why the things that have happened to you happened to you? Do you ever find yourself saying…….”Why would God allow that”…….or worse…… “how could God do that?” I have struggled with those questions for a long time……..and only recently have I found an explanation that might work.

I think that it is possible that God sends things into our lives in order to prepare us for something……..an encounter that may not occur for decades. The great triumphs, the unspeakable tragedies, even the inconsequential events of our lives……like the cow or an old movie………have all shaped us into the people whom we are today…….and have prepared us…….for something.

What if it’s not random? What if that promotion, that winning lottery ticket, that illness, the death of a loved one………even that parking ticket is preparing you for a conversation with a stranger that will occur 50 years from now? What if your tragedy today…….or your triumph…….is the beginning of a series of events that will further God’s kingdom decades from now.

What if God is far more involved in the minor details of your life…….today……than you realize?

The problem is that we are ignorant. Abba Eban could have been thinking of me when he said, “his ignorance is encyclopedic.” We don’t know the details of what God is up to. We are not privy to God’s long term plan. It is easy to say that God isn’t paying attention, to say that God is wrong, or that God doesn’t exist. But, that is just our ignorance speaking.

It’s easy to praise God when something good happens.

It is much harder to praise him when tragedy strikes.

But, in both cases, we are called on to trust him…….to trust in his love…….to trust his long term plan.

Know this:

God loves you……and me…….and the other guy. I need to trust that my tragedy today may be the first step in a chain of events that will shower love down……..on someone…….somewhere…….possibly long after I am gone.

Like the cow…….or the old movie…..something may come into your life today…….a triumph, a tragedy, or something inconsequential. Know that God may be setting the stage for something important somewhere down the road.

Be patient…….and trust in his love.

And we know that for those who love God
ALL things work together for good
For those who are called according to his purpose.

Paul. ESV