I do not believe in God as a marionette, manipulating events to shape us into His image. Likewise, I do not believe in a Satan who makes bad things happen to us. Think of it for a moment...If Satan wants us to do his bidding, making a bunch of bad things happen to us is a questionable way to win our hearts.
Instead of the great manipulators directing our every act, I prefer to believe that there is a physical universe that exists according to the rules of Physics, Chemistry, Geometry, etc., and a spiritual universe that is ruled by God. We exist within these two universes, our lives subject to the vagaries and absolutes of each. Throw in our Free Will and random, chance happenings and you get a pretty confusing place where s*** happens, and we are left with our own faith and God's Grace to see us through.
It is within this vast, confusing space, however, where we can observe good things happening, and can embrace the Optimist's manifesto that is represented in this writing.
Life is a game of chance, of high stakes poker. The ultimate game of Texas Hold 'em, so to speak. We are dealt some cards, we play the hand as best we can and win or lose based upon our cards and our ability.
Whenever it seems that my cards aren't quite good enough or my ability is not capable of winning the hand, I try to remember the words of the Psalmist:
"The Lord is my Shepard. I shall not want."...always to remember that, even if I lose the hand I am still a winner, as I am playing with the house's, or should I more accurately say, God's money.
Allow me to explain.
We have been dealt far more hands than we can recall. It all started when our very essence was determined. Now, it doesn't really matter what your belief system is. Was it luck? God's will? Satan's work? Fate? Or any other method of species selection, but for the sake of our metaphor, you were dealt a hand. The outcome of that hand would determine whether you were dog, a cat, a monkey, anteater, squid, snail or fish, a neutrino or quark, a piece of cosmic dust.....or a human being. The fact that you have a human soul with the ability to love, hate, dream and strive means you won that all important hand,
So, it was decided that you were to be human.
What happened in the next hand? Well, of the thousands of eggs carried in your mother's ovaries, and the millions of sperm produced by your father, one of each joined at a magical moment and produced an embryo that could live in your mother's womb.
You just collected another sizable pot.
And what about your parents? They just happened to be alive during the 20th century, not during the Dark Ages, the Mesopotamian era, the Renaissance or even the American Civil War. They were able to bring you into the world during the time of thee greatest advancements in the human race, a time when we have produced the the means to solve most of the problems that have plagued mankind for Millennia, a time when we have the opportunity to combine intellectual enlightenment, social awareness and technological prowess to feed, clothe and house the world population.
Again, you won the pot, and with it a tremendous opportunity and responsibility.
Let's take a moment to count your chips. Somehow, your soul, your being was assigned to the human race for use at the dawn of the 21st century. The fact that you are not part of the miasma of primordial gas means that you have a huge stack of chips on the table. Or, you might say that the Spirit moves through you as you are filled with God's grace.
But, let's take a look at the next hand.
You are alive, breathing,able to communicate and have made it to a point where you are aware of some of the hands you are playing. Consider the fact that your parents created an environment that got you in a specific location today. You aren't in Biafra, The Sudan, Cambodia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Nicaragua nor Russia, but are in America, The United States of America, where your freedom, talent, creativity, your ability to live life to the fullest are not stifled or merely tolerated, but are encouraged and celebrated. Consider also that after your mother's egg was fertilized it did, indeed, latch onto the uterine wall and you grew. You weren't aborted, you weren't strangled on your umbilical chord, you weren't formed without a brain or heart but, instead, you formed into a living, functional, self-sufficient person If you are here . And, you made it through the trauma of birth! No sudden infant death, no plague, no childhood nor adolescent maladies that have stopped you from breathing, feeling, communicating......living!
So, here you find yourself considering words written by someone you don't know, published in a place foreign to you, and of uncertain provenance and intellectual scrutiny. Before you dismiss this as rantings of a nut job, consider the Gospel of John:
"If you abide in My word [hold fast to my teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My Disciples. And you will know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free."-John 8:31, 32.
In the movie, "The Legend of Bagger Vance", a powerfully spiritual movie, the war veteran Rannulph Junuh, played by Matt Damon is instructed by his coach, Bagger Vance, played by Will Smith to "find your true swing":
Yep... Inside each and every one of us is one true authentic swing... Somethin' we was born with... Somethin' that's ours and ours alone... Somethin' that can't be taught to ya or learned... Somethin' that got to be remembered... Over time the world can, rob us of that swing... It get buried inside us under all our wouldas and couldas and shouldas... Some folk even forget what their swing was like.."
The Truth, in this context is that your swing is the unique gift given to you by God. You are fantastically fortunate, incredibly lucky and granted the enormous gift of God's Grace. But, where God gives you his Love and Grace unconditionally, it is incumbent upon us to share these gifts. It is our responsibility in living His word. to share with fellow sojourners, fellow residents of spaceship Earth our unique gifts and to give of them freely.
So, in closing, if you get to play, you win, for you have been given much.
As is described in Luke 12:48:
When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.
So go out and find your true swing, acknowledge and rejoice in all you have been given, and go do good things.
