Stuff Happens

It’s an illusion we all live under...that we have some kind of control over our lives, over what happens to us, and that we have any understanding about why things happen.

Our lack of control is an ever-present insecurity we'd rather shove to the back of our minds.

I guess this is why so many people feel the need to explain circumstances in light of what "God" does or does not do. Anything that does not make sense can be credited to the Almighty.

And, isn't it funny how he always comes out on top?

We've all heard these explanations:

--God "used" a car accident, or a cancer to bring about this or that good.

Really? You sure about that? Shouldn't I try to get in an accident then? Should I pray for cancer?


--God "allowed" a horrible thing to happen to make someone a better person.

What if I already was that better person, would he then not have had to do it? Can I not then preemptively strike and become really good?


--"Things could have been so much worse…God must really have been looking out for you."

Yeah? If he was really looking out for me wouldn’t he--since he can--have kept it from happening altogether?


--"God really used you..."

Did he? He has some master plan I'm unaware of? Did I then have anything at all to do with it? Or, did he then, need me? Now that I've accomplished his "purpose," I'm just supposed to move to some other project?


--"Everything happens for a reason."

WHERE DO WE GET THIS? Does it? Or does believing it just make us feel better about all the bad stuff?


--"God must really have wanted to teach you something."

Please...you know this?


--"God really had his hand on you."

Hmmm. Maybe.


These statements not only assume we can know the "why" of it all, but how things would have gone down without his intervention....

I say again, isn’t it just a little convenient? Since God must always know best he can be explained out of every bad circumstance.

Shouldn’t we then go around thanking him constantly for all the car accidents we aren’t in? Or shouldn’t we pray to get the cancer and get into the car accident if it does so much good in our lives?

Instead, how about we just say WE DON’T KNOW. We just don't know how or why...

Why is that so hard? Why do we so hate to say we just don't know?

I mean, these things might be true, but to go around holding that belief up all the time is exhausting, and sometimes takes some serious mental gymnastics.

I know, I used to do it.

How about we not only let ourselves not know, but we let God be the bad guy? If he’s God, can’t he take it? Does he really need us to give him the 'out' or the credit?

Yeah, the credit. We do it for the good stuff too--out of superstition if nothing else..."Without God I could not have won this world championship..." Yeah? No kidding. Without God Katrina couldn't have happened either....

Look, there's only one person who is happier than me Kevin’s accident wasn’t worse, but I don’t pretend to know how or why, or what would have happened if God did or didn’t intervene.

Several people have said how fortunate, blessed or lucky he is. Yes, I think so too, it could have been worse, but I have to leave it at that.

When a Christian friend pinned me down and said I HAD to agree that God had his hand on Kevin and protected him from a worse outcome, I could not.

I just don’t know, and neither does she. She thinks she knows God works that way. She throws the accident into her belief-system machine and out come these statements that roll so easily off the tongue.

Good for her, I'm glad life works that way for her. Maybe she just has more faith than I do...In fact, I'm quite sure she does. Maybe I just need more.

Or maybe some of those who so easily explain the world this way just can't, or don't want to, live with pain they can't explain. Maybe some people accept these explanations too easily, or maybe they have a lazy thought process that doesn't even try to see gaps in logic.

Or, maybe they (and even I sometimes), need a "catch-all" God to get them out of scary places...

I'm certainly not going to judge.

I'm just saying...Don't we just so badly want to have some way to explain this life?

Then we can rest...thinking we get it, that we know the "why" of it all...

Guess what? We don’t get to know.

I know...I know..."All things work together for good to those who love God..."

Careful. Be very careful how you interpret that...

If all things don't work out for good do I not love God enough? Am I then not "called according to his purpose?"

Nuh Uh. Nope. Don't throw that out there like we can even know exactly what that means....

Please--help me let some things be unknown. Can't we just let some stuff float out there? Do we really have to pin it all down?

What if, sometimes, there isn't ANY reason something happened...

WHAT IF STUFF JUST HAPPENS?