People are describing their survival as miraculous, that God must have had his hand on them.
I must admit that I'm not so sure. On April 19th, 1995 me and two college classmates were scheduled to take a tour in the Murrah Bulding in Oklahoma City. One of them called the night before to cancel due to a school golf tournament. Had he not cancelled we may have been in that building when it was bombed. We possibly survived that day because of a fluke phone call ten hours before the explosion. 168 others, including over a dozen children, weren't so fortunate.
In 1984 I survived a traumatic car accident while my sister who was sitting next to me was permanently disabled. Three people in the other car were killed that day.
I know all the theological arguments and pithy statements suggesting otherwise, but I can't easily accept the idea that God chooses to save some and allows others to die or suffer. I especially can't accept that fact when some pretty rotten human beings survive these things while some Christian people, like my former student Collin who drowned this past summer, do not.
You can psychoanalyse me all you want. You can say I have survivor's guilt or whatever. But I wholeheartedly reject Calvinist predestination or fatalism. I believe in free will. I believe that we live in a fallen world. I believe that things in this life are not fair. I cannot accept that God chooses at certain times not to intervene to save someone from death on this earth when he has the power to do so. His salvation is fulfilled when we do die and enter His Kingdom.
And yet, perhaps contradictory to my position I still pray every day for God's protection for my son and wife. I will continue to pray for healing for people because one, prayer is meant more to get us into communion with God rather than provide Him with a wish list and second, I'm well aware that my ideas about the nature of His intervention could be wrong or short-sighted or both. My comprehension of His grace and mercy are pathetically ignorant.
I do believe in God's calling, however I do not believe we have a predetermined path. Many Christians fret about big decisions...is this God's will or not? I believe that if you are walking in true relationship with him you are always in God's will no matter the circumstances.
I do believe God does intervene in the world through the Holy Spirit. I do believe The Holy Spirit comforts, empowers and provides wisdom.
Yes, I know you can drive buses through the holes in these views of faith. But the question is, how much do you truly believe in free will?
photo: that was the Suburban, yes a Suburban, the six students were riding in. It was completely burned up.
photo: that was the Suburban, yes a Suburban, the six students were riding in. It was completely burned up.
