IS IT
GOD'S WILL?
Anecdotal
examples abound of people who, when faced with a crisis, had
that crisis resolved through means that defied natural
explanation or
mere chance. If they were religious, they had prayed and will
tell anyone
who will listen that "their prayers were answered." If they were
not
religious, they say that they became so as a result of the
experience.
Such things are called miracles.
Let's look at
the other side of the coin. Suppose the crisis, in spite of
any amount of prayer, is not resolved in a satisfactory manner.
Even more
to the point, suppose its resolution is nothing short of an
unmitigated
disaster. Is the religious person to lose his or her faith,
becoming an
atheist or at least an agnostic? Is the nonreligious person to
forever
have a mental block against religion?
I believe
that it can be said that excessive reliance on "answers to
one's prayers" is not only quite overrated, but also reveals a
religious
faith that is somewhat fragile.
It is important to realize just what is being asked of God when
one prays
for a miracle. When God created the universe, He set in motion
the laws
of physics, chemistry, and biology by which this universe was to
be
governed. The Book of Genesis states that, "He saw that it was
good."
When something bad takes place, it means that these laws have
come
together in a manner to effect that.
A physical miracle requires that He do something to abrogate one
or more
of those laws solely for the benefit of the petitioner. While
that is in
no sense beyond the realm of possibility, and undoubtedly has
happened,
it is something He cannot be expected to do routinely. Often,
when some
serious reversal occurs, we try to comfort the victim (or the
survivor)
of the reversal by saying, "It was God's will." This must be
taken to
mean that it was God's will not to abrogate the laws He set up
for the
universe, in order to prevent what has happened.
If what happens to us is somewhat dependent on the actions of
another,
God can put an idea into the mind of that other person that he
do nothing
to hurt us. If that works, it is even more of a miracle than the
physical
variety, which God can bring about unilaterally. However, that
person has
free will, and, even though ultimately answerable to God for
what he
does, can choose to ignore God's counsel and hurt us anyway.
What then can we ask of God?
A while ago, a rabbi wrote a book titled Why Bad Things Happen
to Good
People. He not only really reached no conclusions, but dismissed
as
unthinkable what is, to me, the obvious conclusion: that bad
luck is
precisely just that. This is a hard pill to swallow because
nobody likes
to believe that he has drawn a pair of deuces in the cosmic
poker game.
This is why everybody's first instinct is to try to find someone
to blame
for one's misfortune. All too often, when an actual villain
cannot be
pinpointed, a handy scapegoat serves the purpose.
A little logic goes a long way to seeing my point. We may start
with the
premise that only God is perfect. From this it necessarily
follows that
the universe He created is less than perfect. When something is
not
perfect, things can go wrong, and Murphy's Law comes into the
picture.
Serious illnesses, natural disasters, and financial reverses are
examples
of things that can and do go wrong.
Jesus himself recognized the luck of the draw. In the Sermon on
the
Mount, He said, "The sun shines on the wicked as well as the
righteous,
and the rain falls on the just as well as the unjust." When bad
things
happen, it can no more be considered a sign of God's displeasure
than can
His approval be used as an explanation of one's prosperity.
Through the
fault of nobody, things may not turn out all right, and, even in
spite of
our best efforts, the worst can happen.
To return to my previous question: what can we expect of God? We
can
expect only the one thing that He has steadfastly promised us:
that if we
sincerely try to live a good life, should the worst come to
happen, He
will take care of us forever.
© E.R.G.S. -
February 21, 1996
GO TOP
Some
are the melody, some are the rhythm, some are the harmony