The Question Is...

... What are you going to do?

The world's getting to be a nasty place.  That's a fact.  I know many people don't believe it, but that can only be because of the cosy little bubble they're living in.  There is a serious lack of loving care in this world we live in.

A friend told me about her little girl wandering off in a crowd...  not one person "rescued" the toddler clearly separated from her Mum.  She nearly made it out the door alone.  I've lost a child myself in a shopping centre and not one person even tried to help me find her.

I've heard about teachers eating nut bars in front of a little boy who keeps constant company with an epi-pen because of his severe allergies.

An early childhood teacher shared how other staff members at her centre ignored the regulations meant to protect children with serious allergies under their care.

These are matters of life and death, and we are living in a world so callous that many people don't care if their actions endanger the lives of innocent children.

In one instance that I know of personally (not just something I heard on the news), the lack of care in a person in authority did lead to a death.

These are not isolated incidents.  Elections are won and lost over the economy.  That's how much money I have to look after me. Meanwhile, abused children die in and out of state custody.  It is legal to brutally murder a baby while the mother is in labour. I kid you not.  Why do we care about money when children are dying?  Because we are a nation that doesn't care about children.  That is the stark and horrible truth.

I could go on and on about the lack of care and compassion in the world, evident by everything from the way people drive (ignoring road rules) to (lack of) customer service.  But that's not the point.  I could complain all day... And I would achieve... what?

The question is: what am I going to do?  What are you going to do?  Are we going to be like everyone else (while complaining about everyone else)?  Or are we going to be different?

Sorry, we can't change the world.  That's up to Jesus and God the Father - when they decide that it's time.

But we can choose not to be part of the world.  We can choose to be the person that grabs the runaway toddler (at the risk of being accused of child molestation).  We can choose to be the person who obeys the annoying rules (for the safety of others) that everyone else ignores.  We can stop complaining about the price of milk when there are children chained to carpet looms, paying off their parents "debts".

We can choose to be the people that care about children, and the elderly... and everyone else in between (whether they deserve it or not).  We can choose to be the people that see the people everywhere we go, not the dollar signs.  We can be the weirdos that actually stay home when we're sick - instead of "sharing" our germs because someone else "shared" their germs with us.  We can choose to be good.

There is just one way to be truly "good", and that is through God.

God is Love.

Not the "love" that gets advertised on Valentine's Day as being all about roses and warm and fuzzy feelings.  God is the Love that shows when no one is watching.  He is the Love that comes out in little actions, not just big ones.

It's in our tone of voice when we answer the phone for the 10th time in an hour and it's another survey.  It's in the expression on our face when we get stuck between two elderly ladies taking up the whole aisle while we're trying to zip through the supermarket.  It's in all the little ways we treat our husbands and children and parents and friends day after day, week after week, year after year.

You've seen the world for what it is - ugly and awful.  Now what are you going to do?

When God Lets Go

There have been a whole bunch of natural disasters happening around the world lately. Floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes - you name it. Even the most ardent climate enthusiast would be hard-pressed to blame earthquakes and volcanoes on man-made climate change. So what is behind all the natural disasters?

It's at times like these that many people will ask "why is God doing this?" The suggestion is that only a very cruel God causes the innocent to die in earthquakes, floods, fires and storms.

But what if we tried looking at the universe in a different way? The Bible tells us that God's eternal power is clearly visible in His creation (Romans 1:19-20). One of the basic laws of science is the law of entropy - the law that states that the universe tends towards disorder. Not surprisingly, scientists have recently expanded on this law in order to explain the order that we see around us. How is it that we live in incredibly ordered bodies on an incredibly ordered planet in the midst of a universe apparently ruled by chaos?

Bear with me, I'm going somewhere with this! What if God is the reason for Order in a universe that tends towards chaos? What if God literally holds our world together? If you read the Bible carefully - especially the Psalms, then it all points toward God - not just putting things in place - but keeping things in place.

What might happen then, if we collectively told God to "go away"? What if we told God that we don't need Him and we don't want Him, we're just fine on our own, thank you very much. What if God took us at our word and let go - even just a little bit?

I can't prove it scientifically, but that's OK because science can't even explain to me how a series of complex molecules that apparently assembled all by themselves can give me the ability to reason and question my own existence. So I don't feel a need to justify the mind of God (as if I could anyway!) to Science.

I truly believe that what we see happening to our world is God letting go, just a little bit. The great Creator is letting us experience a tiny hint of "doing it on our own, thank you very much."

Personally, I won't be telling God to go away anytime soon. Considering that collective humanity hasn't even been able to control a puny little nuclear reactor in Japan, I don't fancy our chances with the whole universe. I'm happy to keep God squarely at the centre of my life.

If you'd like to know more about the God holding the universe together, try reading Does God Exist?