14 March 2005 14:47
written march firstishlife has many mysteries. parts of it are unfathomable. parts of it seem contradictory. life has many ironic twists and turns. is there such a thing as coincidence?
focus on the family produced a radio theatre series called "adventures in odessey" that i listened to as a kid. one of hte main characthers stated on a couple of occasions that he didn't believe in coincidences. all things are brought about by God's design. i've also read about a deist's views on the subject, such that thomas jefferson and a good number of the other founding father's had, a God that sets the clockwork in motion and lets it go.
such a marvoleous clockwork it is.
but just because it's preplanned clockwork, doesn't mean that a timely happenign is just coincidence. the very purpose of a rube goldberg machine is to set in place a preplanned series of cause and effects. even though the only direct human intervention is the initial trigger, the end result is still foretold. does this concept lend an even greater magesty to the Creation? that God is not one who has to play the game by the seat of His pants, but has such terrible omnipotence that he merely had to bring about the correct initial conditions in order for his will to be carried out?
possible? most definately. but psychologically i am much happier with a God who will tinker with the clockwork in answer to prayer. does God know of my prayer ahead of time? yes. so it doesn't matter, does it?.. perhaps not to God, but it does to my meagre thought processes. Jesus in the garden of gethsemane prayed for an immediate change. he knew immediate change of the predestined plan possible. you could argue semantics and say that change wasn't possible, becuase God predestined it that way. but then we're back to arguing like children on a subject we really know nothing about. like a six year old expostulating on nuclear physics or the relative merits of capitolism over socialism.
having faith like a child sounds so easy. that unshakable faith of a naive four year old in the godlike infalliblity of his father.
it is good to wait for the Lord. it is good for a young man to bear the yoke when he is young. i'm getting better at the waiting. it's not really waiting.. each day is still interesting, i don't live for two months down the road, i'm enjoying today while it's here. yet i can't help but think about my future, because people invariably ask me about it. who am i to know my future? why can't they ask me about the weather? i thought that it was bad when i was in the "what college are you going to go to?" phase. i didn't quite have to make up an answer then. i had a pretty good idea.
then i had only two or three options. now i have many more options. four or five that look like they might materialize well, but they're not even options for certain yet. i have two options that are certain, but i'm not interested. and half the time, i don't care. i'll care about six months from now when six months from now finally gets here.
but the other half of the time i do care. especially after i've just been asked how long i'm here for and what i'll do next. i've been telling them that i'll be here for about one to nine months. that usually gets a laugh. they think i'm joking.
then i try to figure out the key to Jesus' words on worry: "seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness". how do i translate a bold command into bold action? to me, seeking the kingdom is one and the same as making God's will mine, his good pleasing and perfect will. his command to go and baptize every nation.
life has many mysteries.
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