Final Destination?

I recently heard a horrific story about a massacre that happened in a country in Europe, I believe it was Norway. The story was about a man who went a little bit crazy in his zeal for his ideals and began shooting random people essentially to purge humanity of imbeciles that didn't agree with him. The shooting took the lives of dozens of teen children that were doing a teen camp on an island in a lake. I don't want to give much detail because you can read the news story yourself, if you haven't already, and because that's not really the point of this blog. The point of this blog is to answer the commonly asked question, "Why would God let that happen?"

This is a question that I've pondered ever since I heard about the Holocaust, and even more as I watched the World Trade Centers brought low, and even recently as I've experienced tragedies in close proximity to me. For a long time I couldn't think of an answer, but I've always trusted that God knows best and fortunately never doubted Him despite how terrible a situation was; I never knew the answer to the question, though, and can't really claim to even now. However, from an early age I believe God has been doing things in my life and my mind to help me understand why these things happen, and the answer came first in the form of a question: "How many times does God save my life every single day?"

I remember perhaps the first time I ever realized just how fragile this life is and how even half a second of hesitation can save your life or bring it to a screeching halt. I was maybe 13 years old eating lunch downtown Boise with my mom sister and some others in my family. We went to a diner called "Blue Bell" or "Blue Cow" or something to that effect, I don't quite recall, and I got a milkshake. At the end of the meal everybody was up and ready to go and after taking a couple more sips I got up and followed my mom out the door and to our hi-tech Honda Odyssey featuring a DVD player and self-opening-doors (I still get excited watching those doors slide open magically). As we were driving down the highway, about five minutes from our exit, a truck in the next lane over carrying fairly large metal vehicle parts lost a fairly large piece of it's cargo and the metal object careened across the road, bounced off the medium, and, as if it was timed purposely, slid right under our car without causing any blunt force trauma to the car or it's passengers.

In that instance I remember the first thing that crossed my mind when this happened was that if I hadn't slowed my mom down by taking those extra sips of my milkshake that metal object would have met the front of our car on its way back down; or, even more likely, had I slowed her down even more by actually finishing the shake completely, which I'm still surprised I didn't do, it would have more likely than not ended up going right through our windshield. I realize that some people will disagree with me when I say that EVERY single little occurrence in our lives can effect what happens to us that day, that week, and for the rest of our lives.

Everything that happens has a ripple effect on our lives: it starts out effecting a very small part of our lives and as time goes on it covers more and more areas of our lives. I'm talking about things as small as whether or not you see a billboard as your driving down the road, because seeing it will effect your thought processes because you'll take up a certain amount thinking about that billboard, even if it's just subconsciously and that interrupts what you would have been thinking about. Arguable? Sure, but unfortunately we can't live "It's a Wonderful Life" for ourselves to find out. So if you can't accept my theory at that level, step it up a couple notches to whether or not you decide to buy a milkshake.

So what does this have to do with the question, "Why would God let that happen?" Well the simple answer would be, "A whole lot actually, just think about it." Considering the impact that even our smallest choices have on our lives just think about how many times your life has been spared. Maybe that decision to buy pop (or soda or whatever you call it) last week helped to keep you from that intersection for a second as some bimbo ran a red light today, or a hundred other decisions all compounded together. The point is, you have no idea the impact of what you do today, and how it'll effect you tomorrow. However, God ALWAYS does, and therefore can put help to guide us along with little circumstances to keep us from being hurt or killed, perhaps without us even knowing that He's the one nudging us along in that direction. When I get to heaven the first thing i think I'll ask God is how many times He saved my life every day. I think the number would make all of us extremely paranoid if we heard it while we were alive.

I know I know, that doesn't really answer the question though, but like I said before, I really don't fully understand the reason why so many bad things happen, but I can say this much for sure, we have absolutely no idea how many times God saves our lives each day. God took a big risk when He did this with Adam and Eve, but He never changes His mind, and that was to give humanity free-will, and He will NEVER force us to do anything. Short of infringing upon our free-will, I believe God does everything else He can to keep terrible things from happening. That's just why bad things happen, though, because there's sin in the world and people do what they want to do, leading to the pain and suffering of others. Can't God stop this though? Couldn't He have struck Hitler and all the German leaders down and stopped WWII? Well of course He could have. I don't know exactly why He didn't, but I do know that God knows best, and for whatever reason He has limited Himself to being released to move through our prayers.

I don't know if you've been pondering this question lately or not, but if you have, I really hope that this has been at least some small comfort to you. Just remember, God knows what's best, there is power in the prayers of the righteous, and God is sovereign and cradles your life within His hands because He love you so very much. Always trust God and always pray in the midst of your circumstances, He is ever faithful and always working.