I'd like to give the people who make these statements a little leeway. -- RealityFans

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Date Posted: 14:05:35 05/30/02 Thu
Author: Cari
Subject: I'd like to give the people who make these statements a little leeway.
In reply to: WE67 's message, "Opening up a can of worms maybe?" on 06:52:27 05/30/02 Thu

Some people make statements like these calmly and arrogantly truly thinking God has a variable degree of love for the people on this earth and that they have been singled out as more deserving than others. But more often statements like these are made by people who are in an extreme emotional state, either of elation, anxiety or relief.

Because of that extreme emotion they aren't seeing things in terms of what has happened to anyone else or why those people experienced their consequences. Their thinking only of their own emotions and experience. They are feeling fortunate, blessed if you will. They feel fortunate to have won or fortunate to have survived and they may feel that God truly had a hand in that. They aren't thinking in terms of what happened to others and how God may have effected that, but only in terms of what could have happened to them.

In moments of calm, most Christains know we don't earn either salvation, God's grace or good circumstances. Bad or good things and seemingly bad or good things happen to people without regard to their character or their degree of worthiness. Being firmly grounded in this world, we usually see death as unfortunate. It is unfortunate to those who are not prepared for it (I'm one of those) and for those who are left behind to grieve. It may not be unfortunate for those who make that step into the afterlife, especially if there is an afterlife and it is as pleasant as it has been represented to be.

Sometimes the person who wins the big game, gains celebrity, wins the money, gets the promotion, or survives the ordeal, let's it change him in adverse ways. We see some of these people turn down paths of abusive lifestyles, infidelity, isolation, paranoia, stinginess, selfishness and abusiveness. What appears to be good fortune or a gift is not always so and those who appear to have lost, haven't always done so either.

Maybe God saved them because their faith wasn't strong enough to allow them a place in heaven yet, maybe it was dumb luck. I guess I'm willing to let people who've been scared out of their minds and come that close to death have the liberty of attributing it wherever they choose. I'm sure they didn't mean to imply that all those who died weren't loved by God and if they did, they were wrong.

When an athlete says he thanks God for helping him win, I would hope he doesn't think or mean that God preferred him over whoever lost or even that God intervenes in the outcome of sporting events. What God may have done throughout his life is help him understand that all of us our God's children, we are all loved and we all have qualities that can bring pleasure and a sense of accomplishment into our lives. God may have given him the strength to persevere in difficult moments and the love that was needed to know he wasn't alone in this world. If we trust that God has given us the tools to find fulfillment, then win or lose are hearts will find joy in the process of living and that is something we should thank God for doing. It would be nice if the losers thanked God as well recognizing that the value of their lives is not determined by the outcome of a game.

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Replies:

Wonderful CARI! -- Oback, 14:26:36 05/30/02 Thu
ITA with everything you wrote there, Cari, but....well, you would -- WE67, 14:32:42 05/30/02 Thu
- You're right, I'm addressing the topic in general -- Cari, 14:41:51 05/30/02 Thu