Perspective

I was just reading an article about a lawsuit over a little boy that was accidentally mutilated by a doctor. I’m not going to go into details about how that happened, but suffice it to say that such things do happen.

Sometimes mutilations happen on purpose, as when a limb is amputated to prevent gangrene from spreading, or when cancer has become so advanced that radical surgical procedures are called for.Someone close to me recently lost a testicle for that reason, and is now undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer (the two cancers don’t appear to be related). Three friends of mine had their gall bladders removed last year. A friend of a friend is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. I don’t know what protocols are being used in her case, but I know that, well, you know. It’s been said that men have a biological imperative to seek out women with ample ability to nurse babies, if you catch my drift, but in this day and age where formula is readily available, is that even necessary anymore? At the same time, I have to admit that I think it would take some adjusting on my part to get used to hugging a woman that had survived a double-mastectomy (or even a single mastectomy Still, I think that, if this were a woman that I loved, her surgery would not change my feelings toward her. If I met a woman that were such a survivor, I would like to think that I would be able to get past that, because I know that it shouldn't really make any difference.

One could argue, in each case, that God gave us these organs for a reason. In some cases, He also installed spares; that is, a one-eyed man can still see, and so on. Of course, a one-eyed man loses depth perception, but he still has some sight.A man with one lung may experience breathing problems, but he can generally still breathe. God only gave us each one gall bladder, though; was it simply not important enough to require a spare? One can certainly live a long time without a gall bladder.

One thing that a lot of people seem to miss is that our bodies are temporal. I know that losing a limb or an organ doesn’t make any difference to God, as far as how much He loves us. Perhaps I shouldn’t say it doesn’t make any difference, it’s possible that he loves the mutilated among us even more; He certainly doesn’t love them any less. Now I have a responsibility to love as God loves, even though, in this my body, I sometimes suffer from a tendency to look on the outward appearance. I know better, but my flesh is weak. My point is, though, that all of these things pass away in time. We have a bad tendency to become angry or outraged at the things that befall us in this life, yet this is the short life. Average age is, what, 72? 73? Let's suppose that you live to be 100. How does that compare with eternity? Even if you live to be 120, how does that compare with infinity? If we express that as a mathematical fraction, 120/∞, what does that work out to be? The mathematical term for that is "infinitesimal," meaning, basically, way too small to measure. Try to imagine a decimal point followed by more zeroes than you have ever seen, followed by a one at the end. I'm guessing that you aren't imagining enough zeroes. Try to imagine the importance of one grain of sand, compared to all the sand on all the beaches in all the world, multiplied by several trillion. Or one speck of dust, trying to fill in the Grand Canyon (and even that is selling it short). This is the short life, folks. If you're lucky enough to have enjoyable journey on this side, more power to you, but if you have a miserable life, just remember that, in perspective, it isn't going to last very long.

The Philosopher and God (the conclusion)

Two days ago, I started blogging about the relationship between philosophers and God. I have explored some of the accusations made against God, and I have attempted to answer those accusations with scripture. This is the conclusion of that discussion.

Of course, these philosophers never seem to feel that they need to change, and especially not that they need to improve. It’s everyone else that needs improvement. Evidently the philosopher doesn’t believe that God created all men equal. I can imagine him screaming now, “Look around you, do you think everyone is equal?” What I really don’t understand is why they think that they are such fine examples of humanity, and everyone else should be more like them.

Another thing is that people seem to want to take the credit when something good happens, but give God the blame whenever anything bad happens. Job said, shall we receive good at the hand of God, and not evil?

Some of these philosophers remind me of Jim Carey’s character in Bruce Almighty. At the beginning of the movie, Bruce spends a lot of time whining and complaining about how he never gets what he wants, that life is so unfair, that God is so unfair. After some time, God shows up and says, “Hey look, you think you can do better? Here’s the keys.” Okay, not quite those words, but you get the point. Bruce, with God’s powers, becomes even more self-centered, but finds that even with God’s powers he still can’t get what is really most important to him. At one point, he is driving down the road praying to God to give him a sign, while following a truck carrying signs that say “Danger!” and “Turn back!” After he gets hit by another truck, then he finally starts to listen to God. Of course, then he starts to realize that the things that he wanted, but didn’t get before, weren’t really important after all, and, well, if you’ve seen the movie, then you understand, and if you haven’t, then maybe you should. Some of it does get a little adult, but overall, it’s a good movie. I just wish that Hollywood would go back to making serious movies with religious messages. Lately it seems like religion is only an acceptable subject if the movie is a comedy, or the religious characters are the bad guys.

On another point, the number of different religions speaks to man’s lack of understanding as far as what he should believe. It also speaks to man’s innate belief that there is some form of Higher Power. If we are confused about what that higher power is, or how we should worship it, maybe that is only because we allow ourselves to be. He has always been there, ready to give us answers. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He does want us to trust Him. He has always taken care of those that serve Him, why would He change now?

The Philosopher and God (part 2)

Yesterday I started a blog about the relationship between philosophers and God. This is a continuation of that.

In the movie, The Matrix, Keanu Reeves plays a man who, although successful in life, feels that there is something missing, that there is a larger truth; perhaps he feels that his life is too easy. What he eventually finds is that his life is an illusion, that his brain has been hooked into a computer network that is set to simulate the “golden age” of humanity, only without the problems. “Neo” Anderson’s restlessness stems from the fact that he has no real challenges, that on some level, he realizes that this is unreal. It would be rather inevitable, I think. God has wired us to be problem solvers, risk takers, challenge facers. Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so. Does it cause us problems sometimes? I would have to answer that question with a definite, “Often.” Still, what good would we be to God if we were simply sentient oatmeal? Could we, as a species, ever be happy if we didn’t have to work things out, to figure out what we should do?

I have been told (and I have not read it for myself, so I don’t know) that in the Book of Mormon it says that God had two sons: Jesus and Lucifer. God asked His two sons how to handle mankind. Lucifer answered that God should simply make us automatons, creatures that responded only as they were programmed to, operating on simple instinct. If God were to design man for the purpose of worship, then man would worship God continually, because man would not know how to do anything else. Jesus responded that God should give man free will, but that He, Himself (Jesus) would sacrifice Himself for the sins of the world, to redeem man unto God once again. Obviously, (assuming that is an accurate representation of what is taught in the Book of Mormon) the book goes on to say that God chose Jesus’ idea. Lucifer got angry, and tried to sabotage the whole plan. The upshot of the whole story is that God wanted people who would serve Him of their own free will, out of gratitude. To be honest, I am not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, nor have I ever been (which is why I have not read the book), but it occurs to me that the story at least illustrates some of the true nature of God. He never wanted us to serve Him out of compulsion. When the Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver, that includes our praise to Him. We should be grateful just to have been created, but He has also taken human form and suffered while that human form died a horrible death.

I’ve heard the argument that, by definition, God cannot die. That is true. At the same time, the Spirit of God, inhabiting human flesh, can (and did) experience the death of that human body. The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in all the same ways that we are. When the philosopher says that God doesn’t understand the burden that He has put upon us, than the philosopher just doesn’t understand the lengths that God went through. Of course, there will always be those that can not, or will not, take responsibility for their own actions or inaction. It started with Adam. When he got caught doing something he shouldn’t, His first words were, “Oh, but God, the woman that YOU gave me…” In other words, Adam was telling God, “Blame the woman, or blame yourself, but don’t take it out on me.” God didn’t buy that logic then, and He isn’t going to buy it now. He has always been there, ready to lead us and to guide us, and if we can’t feel Him or hear Him, then we just need to work harder at it. We must strive to do God’s will.

Still more to come…

The Philosopher and God

The philosopher says that if God created man, He did an awfully poor job of it. We, as a species, seemed to be doomed to destroy ourselves. We tend to be self-centered, or, at the very least, very selective in our compassion, we tend to take needless risks, we don’t learn very well—it frequently takes a serious jolt to our own situation just to get our attention, much less actually learn from it. Some of us can be very stoic when it comes to other people suffering, and not even stop to consider, “What if that were me?” One of the questions that comes up is that, if God is real, why is there so much suffering in the world? Is it that God can’t do anything about it, in which case He is not so all-powerful, is He? Or is it that He won’t do anything about it, in which case He isn’t exactly the loving God that religion makes Him out to be, is He?

Furthermore, God hasn’t done a very good job of making it clear to us just who He is. He seems to go out of His way to keep Himself a mystery. There are hundreds of different religions, and most of them claim to be the only way to achieve eternal salvation—that they are the only one with a true understanding of who God is.

Someone else suggested that we have been created with a “God-shaped hole” and that as much as we would like to be self-sufficient, we really never can be. Some people manage to create the impression that they are self-sufficient, but it is only an illusion. Some of these people even manage to fool themselves. Recently a scientific study indicated that human beings are hard-wired to believe in a god or gods, and even to develop religious practices. And yet, many of these people (possibly even most of these people) are no more moral or compassionate toward their fellow man than the average atheist.

The thing is that there are a lot of people who, although they take their religion very seriously, don’t have a personal relationship with God. You can find those people in any religion you like. It’s easy to say, well, most of the Christians that I’ve known.. (or Muslims, or Jews, or Hindus, or Buddhists, or whatever other religion you like) … have been guilty of (whatever sin you like). Quite, frankly, I’ve probably been guilty of whatever sin you happen to be thinking of, myself. As much as I would like to claim that I am always in tune with God, and always obeying His plan, always doing my part, I am, above all, human, and I make mistakes. I have made many mistakes. Perhaps if I were a better learner, I wouldn’t make so many mistakes. On the other hand, if I were less intelligent, perhaps I would be less inclined to trust my own judgment and get better at seeking God’s will for my own life.

Still, the question really comes down to, why didn’t God create us better? Scripture says that the vessel has no right to ask the potter, why have you made me this way? Still, I would like to suggest that most of us are familiar with the truism, “Anything worth having is worth working for.” If you aren’t familiar with that one, then another statement, made by one of our founding fathers, may help with the concept. Thomas Paine said that “That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.”

If there were only one religion, the right one, and the only choices were that religion, or atheism, then most people would choose that religion. There would, of course, be varying degrees of devotion within that religion (I’m sure that some atheists would become members just to keep from being ostracized). Where would be the challenge in that? If God made Himself obvious, then there would be no atheists either. We would, in effect, have no freedom in regards to our own religious beliefs.
To be continued...

Dreams And Losing Things

It has been some time since I lasted posted. My apologies to whomsoever may have missed me.

Last night I had an interesting dream: I dreamed that my pastor shared with me a scripture passage and showed me a significance that I had never attached to it before. In the dream, I became very excited about it, partially wondering why I had never seen that before, and partially thinking, “I know what my next blog posting will be about!” I woke up, trying to remember what passage it was, and went and looked it up, only to find that the Bible in my dream was quite different than the Bible by my bed…

I must admit, I was a little disappointed: I thought God was using my dream to show me something. Maybe He was just using my dream to push me back to writing again, but, to be honest, I think that I had been giving a lot of thought to my blog lately (and I have been feeling guilty about not posting), and that was what caused the dream.

For what it’s worth, the passage in the dream was that Jesus met a man, and told that man that he was right with God. Jesus stooped, and wrote the man’s name on the ground. Then He told the man to be sure to stay ready, because it would be easy to, and Jesus stooped down again, and used his thumb to smudge the man’s name.

There is, of course, no such passage in the Bible. In Psalms, there is a passage that talks about blotting out names from the Book of Life, though. Some would say that we are under a new covenant; we don’t have to worry about that any more. I would suggest that, new covenant or not, God is still God, and, although He has allowed us a closer relationship with Him than He did those of the Old Testament, there are many aspects of the relationship that have not changed. He still expects us to remain faithful to Him. Some might also argue that the people described in Psalms don’t sound like they were ever actually right with God, anyway. I have to agree; the description given makes it sound like these people were never any good. I have to wonder, though, if that’s the case, why were their names ever written in the Book of Life, then?

In any case, in the parable of the sower, Jesus said that the seeds that fell on the rock were those that receive the Word with joy, and for a while believe, but in time of temptation fall away.

Hmmm. When I sat down to write this, I thought I was writing about dreams…

Claim the Victory!

Yesterday I mentioned that one has to claim what one has been given by God. Some people would argue that if God wants you to have it, then you are going to get it. Period. There is no discussion. Yesterday, the subject at hand was the Israelites, having been brought out of Egypt, arriving at the promised land, and discovering that there were already people living there. These people were physically bigger, and more numerous than the Israelites. God was willing to give them the victory over the Canaanites, but the people of Israel were frightened, or didn’t have enough faith, or both. So, God led them back out into the wilderness. That, in and of itself, would seem to negate the argument that if God wants you to have something, then you will get it.

The plain and simple truth is that if you want anything in life, you should be prepared to put forth some effort to get it. If you sit back and wait for God to give you everything you want, you will almost certainly be waiting for a long time. You may get a few things, because of the prayers of others in your behalf, but that’s it. Ever hear the expression, anything worth having is worth working for? There’s a lot of truth to that. Some may say, “But I could never earn that…” and that may very well be true, also. There are many things that I have gotten from God that I could never earn. I’m not saying that you have to earn gifts from God, I’m only saying that God helps those who help themselves.

If you were walking along a river bank, and there was a guy handing out $100 bills on the other side of the river, and invited you to swim over and get one, I’m pretty sure that you would be willing to do that. Some people would try to find another way across the river that didn’t involve getting wet, but if swimming were the only way across, then what? Most of us would swim for it. I’m sure that there are some people that would argue the semantics of this “gift” $100 bill. “If I have to do something to get it, then it isn’t a gift; I earned it.” So, what you’re saying is, in order for it to be a true gift, the other guy has to swim to you? Are you saying that swimming across the river is actually worth $100? If you know of a job where I can get paid $100 for spending a few minutes of swimming, I’d sure like to know about it, because I can swim for a long time, and, for that kind of money, I would be willing to spend a lot of days at the pool. Let me ask you something: what would your swimming across the river benefit the guy giving away money? I could see if there were a swim meet with professional athletes and organizers selling tickets to see these people swim, but that isn’t the case here. This is just some philanthropist who wants to give away some money, but he’s not willing to go too far out of his way to do it; we need to come to him.

The Bible talks about people being slothful and lazy, and it doesn’t talk about those people in a nice way. If God doesn’t approve of laziness, then why would He reward it? Why does the New Testament talk so much about things that we should be doing, if it’s okay to refuse to do any of it? Oh, but we’re saved by Grace through faith. Yes we are; absolutely. We could never do enough to earn salvation, but faith without works is dead, and dead faith is useless. If salt, a preservative, loses its savor (its saltiness, the qualities that make it salt, that help it to preserve things), then it is basically just dirt. If our faith is dead, then it can’t preserve us, either, and we aren’t good for anything, either. Remember the man with the one talent? If one has only one talent, then that talent is faith. Remember what happened to him because he didn’t use his talent of faith? It wasn’t because he was out doing things he wasn’t supposed to be doing, but because he didn’t do what he was supposed to do, which was add to his faith.

Timing

There’s an old expression, “The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.” The original expression (“The early bird gets the worm.”) was intended to emphasize that it’s generally better to be early. Of course, if you stop and think about it, even if you’re talking just about birds and worms, the early worm gets eaten, but the worm that sleeps in survives (at least for a while). Realistically though, the right timing is very important, and sometimes being early is just as wrong as being late.

In Numbers, when the children of Israel first reach the promised land, Moses picks one man from each tribe to go in and spy out the land; what is God giving us, and what do we have to do to claim it? (wait, we have to claim what God gives us? Yes, as a matter of fact, we do, but that’s a subject for another day) Ten of the spies came back with stories of how big the Canaanites were, and how well armed they were, but Joshua and Caleb came back with tales of how nice the land was, how big the grapes were, and how big the cities that the Canaanites had built for the Israelites were. Apparently the others were not aware of the curse that had been placed on the Canaanites (Genesis 9:25). Joshua and Caleb tried to convince the people that it didn’t matter how mighty the Canaanites were, God had promised the Israelites this land, and He would be with them to defeat the Canaanites. Unfortunately, the people became discouraged, and God told them to back and wander around in the wilderness. Some of he people realized that they had been wrong, and belatedly tried to talk Israel into invading the land of Canaan anyway. Moses told them that it was too late, that they had missed the will of God, and that they needed to wait. Some of them attempted to invade anyway, and were slaughtered. The timing was wrong, and, really, God had decided that He didn’t want the nay-sayers going into the promised land anyway. So, Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years until the only adults left from that incident were Joshua and Caleb.

Other times, people were told to wait on God. King Saul once got into trouble because he was supposed to wait for the man of God, Samuel, but he got impatient, or scared that the enemy was going to attack before Samuel’s arrival, and so he “forced himself” to offer a sacrifice to the Lord early. He got in trouble for that. You see, sometimes when it seems like God has abandoned us, He’s just waiting for the right time. Sometimes it’s a test, to see if we will wait on God, or whether we will try to do things on our own. Sometimes even “good” things can get us into trouble, if it’s outside of God’s will, if it isn’t the right time to fit His plan. It’s important that we do things in God’s time, even if it seems that God is taking too long, or that God hasn’t heard us at all.