Showing posts with label God is in control. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God is in control. Show all posts
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Bible reading: Proverbs 21:1
The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Understanding God: creation & control
The whole idea that God existed before anything else (he is outside of and indeed the creator of space, time, energy and matter) and that he has always existed (there is no "before God") and will always exist is difficult enough for humans to understand. Closely related to this reality about God is the difficulty in understanding how exactly God is the Creator and also how he is always in control. I've thought of a simple typical experience that everyone has seen, which can help to understand by putting one in the right mindset.
Think back to a time when you have opened the window on a warm day, and a breeze blows into the window, stirring and moving the curtains. Well, the first step to understanding God is realizing that God is not standing there waving the curtains back and forth for you.
LOL! I know you are saying, well, I never thought that he was! Yes, but the misdirected human understanding of God is not too far from thinking that. The idea that "everything" has a message (from God or "someone else," like a deceased loved one or a "spirit") is only one step away from thinking that God is standing there and it is his "control" that makes the curtains move back and forth in the breeze.
Why is there this confusion? People get confused with three aspects of God's power: 1) his being the Creator 2) his being "in control" and 3) everything that happens is "God's will." This is why I realized this simple analogy will help you to understand each of these three aspects of God's power.
God created the universe, including everything in it, such as the sun which provides the warm day, the earth and the humans upon it, the weather, and thus the wind that moves the curtains. During God's creation God maintains total control over all that is created, and being All Knowing, God perfects his creation so that it continues to develop and function the way he intended. Thus God is in control because he shaped the material of his creation so that it has natural law and forces that support ongoing existence (such as atomic structures, the movement of light, the existence of mass and gravity, the effects of rotation and so forth). This is why the curtains move and God does not have to stand there and invisibly make them flap back and forth for you, ha. The curtains move because God created the materials and the forces (nature laws) of the structure of the universe and then he let them go. It's not like God has to "try it out," because remember, he is All Knowing. When God declared in the Bible that his creation is "good," that is what he meant, that he created all that the universe (and life within it) needed for it to now run on its own.
So when you heat a pot of water over an open fire, God is not having to rub the water molecules together for you so that the water becomes warm and then hot, any more than God is having to combust each of the molecules of the wood so that it would burn. Water heats over a flame because God created the infrastructure and the natural forces that would be "good," as in effective and self sustaining. Another example, gravity works not because God has to put his hand over each object and person and hold them down onto the earth, ha.
Back to our example, God created and controls the waving of the curtain in the breeze because God created time, matter and energy, and thus the forces that align and motivate them in predictable behavior of physics and science. So God created the "raw materials" for the waving of the curtain (the sun, the earth, fibers and wood, people smart enough to build houses with windows and curtains, weather including the development of wind when the temperature and pressure gradients are right, etc). When we say that God is in control, what we should mean is that everything he put into place is functioning authentically and predictably, just as it should. I've written about this before in the blog but just to remind you, an unforeseen and tragic automobile accident where there is a loss of life is in God's control not because God reaches out and pushes one car into another, but because God created a universe where if two heavy objects collide the materials within react according to physics in a predictable way.
Now that you understand, at least on a gut level, through these simple examples, how God 1) creates and 2) controls (to put it simply, he creates the raw materials and the "rules" by which creation continues onward and interacts within itself) you can better understand the levels at which something is God's will. Let's start with returning to the open window with the warm breeze that waves the curtains.
It was God's will that he decided to create a universe in the first place. It is God's will that he created in the way that he did, that it is stable and consistent, but with growth, change and movement. It is God's will that living beings will find what they need to sustain life (such as light, warmth and air). It is God's will that some beings, humans mostly but some animals too, are smart enough to shape their own dwellings. It is God's will that humans benefit from wise decisions (seeking shelter in their dwellings when weather is harsh), but it is also God's will that the power of bad weather, for example, does not suddenly halt and become benign whenever someone makes a bad decision (such as taking a boat out into the stormy seas, and remember, Jesus had to miraculously intervene when the Apostles were set upon by a storm at sea). So it is God's will that all in all, he very very VERY rarely upends and overturns the laws by which the universe of time, energy and matter operates in order to miraculously sustain someone in a bad situation, of their making or not (such as a natural disaster). It is further God's will that humans (and animals) feel pleasure, including aesthetics, in life. Thus it is God's will that the warm breeze feels good, the sun uplifts one's spirit, and the waving of the curtain in the breeze feels homey and aesthetically pleasing. Likewise, if one misjudges and makes an error (such as putting a fragile vase in front of an open window with a strong breeze, and it is knocked down), it is God's will that oops, natural forces continue to work as expected. God neither knocks down the vase nor "makes you feel bad," but that is the natural outcome of the small actions in life as time, energy, matter and human free choice interact.
So when someone devout says, usually after a sad event or loss, that it is "God's will," that is actually not a simplistic observation. It is, rather, the wise summation of the creative, by God, the controlling, by God, and free choice, by humans or by happenstance, outcome for all of the above to exist at all as a result of God's will. Yes, then, when a person dies, his or her "time had come" and it is "God's will," but the slippery slope is that one must not imagine that God is pushing some baby into a swimming pool, or cramming one car into another, or "giving" a person cancer, etc. God created all those materials, energies and potentialities (according to free choice and situations) and it is his will that with very rare exceptions, the rewards or the consequences naturally result. What do I mean by potentialities? Well, I blogged about one example before, which is being around potentially cancer causing smoke. It's not like God has to, nor is it in his nature, to reach inside someone and "give" them "cancer." Further, God does not make a person crave smoking cigarettes. All those potentialities are a matter of chemistry, physics, human genetics and human free choice. It is God's will that life has limitations and dangers, but it is also God's will that humans can seek ways to maximize the benefits of well being. Water is great, and swimming is great, but lack of a fence and a watchful parent over a baby near water is unwise. Likewise tobacco might be pleasurable to smoke in a cigarette but the problem develops when it is done to excess and becomes a habit that stimulates potential cancer in one's self or second hand in others.
So when a person mourns that the loss of a loved one is "God's will," that person is being pious and correct if they realize, as most have done so before these past few generations, that the life that one is given is unpredictable, that life is robust and forgiving while at the same time fragile and subject to defect, and that it is indeed the person's "time" because God will not intervene (except in those rare miraculous circumstances) when the known factors of a person's potential demise intersect. An example of an intersection is 1) smoking to excess 2) being of weak health or prone to easy damage 3) unable or unwilling to receive treatment. God does not 1) make the person smoke to excess 2) "give" him or her bad genes or 3) deprive them of treatment or give them a negative and bad attitude about available treatment. You see what I mean?
Moderns have become, for reasons I've discussed before 1) paranoid 2) narcissistic 3) excessively "magical" thinking and 4) disbelieving in the ultimate goodness of God and God alone. Thus there has been (and I pray that this is changing) an increasing obsession that somehow long life and wonderfulness has been guaranteed to everyone (and some of that is the "deeds" over grace error of thought) and that when an intersection of natural law and situations/human choices occurs that God (or "alien" or "other" forces) have "singled out" a person or group for hardship. That's not only wrong but it's dangerous because one then discards not only authentic belief in God but one also discards common sense and proper survival instincts and thinking.
Imagine if someone actually thought that when he opened the window and the sun shone and the breeze blew and the curtains waved that God was just standing there, waving that big peacock feather fan at him, turning on the tanning lamp and just giving him his own personal spa treatment. You'd think that person was crazy, right? Well, as I said, unfortunately many people have gotten on that slippery slope as they should have known better and worse, raised their children or taught their students that entire warped mindset. Thus many young people are paranoid and narcissistic because they feel so manipulated and at the behest of an arbitrary world filled with "unfairness" and "forces" that must be appeased/controlled! By the way, when I say "unfairness" I mean "not fair" by some human standard; I don't mean unjust because then I'd be in total agreement: the world is filled with human injustice and unrighteousness. But the word "fair" in popular thought (separate from political or legal thought) has come to mean that one's life seems disproportionate to one's expectations, and thus subject to some mysterious dispensation of favor or punishment. That kind of thinking results in attitudes such as, just for an easy example, that the life providing process by which a human body makes and stores fat is somehow bad and must be tamed. Um, no one would be alive if the body could not make and store fat, duh. But this paranoid separation from reality (both faith reality and secular reality) results in some messed up thinking.
I yearn for the time when people understood this, as they all did, prior to the last fifty years or so (with a few lunatic exceptions, of course, none of whom I need to name here).
Anyway, rather than get into that whole mess (again) in discussion, I'd rather leave you with this hopefully helpful simple analogy for understanding how God does indeed create, control and exert his will.
Think back to a time when you have opened the window on a warm day, and a breeze blows into the window, stirring and moving the curtains. Well, the first step to understanding God is realizing that God is not standing there waving the curtains back and forth for you.
LOL! I know you are saying, well, I never thought that he was! Yes, but the misdirected human understanding of God is not too far from thinking that. The idea that "everything" has a message (from God or "someone else," like a deceased loved one or a "spirit") is only one step away from thinking that God is standing there and it is his "control" that makes the curtains move back and forth in the breeze.
Why is there this confusion? People get confused with three aspects of God's power: 1) his being the Creator 2) his being "in control" and 3) everything that happens is "God's will." This is why I realized this simple analogy will help you to understand each of these three aspects of God's power.
God created the universe, including everything in it, such as the sun which provides the warm day, the earth and the humans upon it, the weather, and thus the wind that moves the curtains. During God's creation God maintains total control over all that is created, and being All Knowing, God perfects his creation so that it continues to develop and function the way he intended. Thus God is in control because he shaped the material of his creation so that it has natural law and forces that support ongoing existence (such as atomic structures, the movement of light, the existence of mass and gravity, the effects of rotation and so forth). This is why the curtains move and God does not have to stand there and invisibly make them flap back and forth for you, ha. The curtains move because God created the materials and the forces (nature laws) of the structure of the universe and then he let them go. It's not like God has to "try it out," because remember, he is All Knowing. When God declared in the Bible that his creation is "good," that is what he meant, that he created all that the universe (and life within it) needed for it to now run on its own.
So when you heat a pot of water over an open fire, God is not having to rub the water molecules together for you so that the water becomes warm and then hot, any more than God is having to combust each of the molecules of the wood so that it would burn. Water heats over a flame because God created the infrastructure and the natural forces that would be "good," as in effective and self sustaining. Another example, gravity works not because God has to put his hand over each object and person and hold them down onto the earth, ha.
Back to our example, God created and controls the waving of the curtain in the breeze because God created time, matter and energy, and thus the forces that align and motivate them in predictable behavior of physics and science. So God created the "raw materials" for the waving of the curtain (the sun, the earth, fibers and wood, people smart enough to build houses with windows and curtains, weather including the development of wind when the temperature and pressure gradients are right, etc). When we say that God is in control, what we should mean is that everything he put into place is functioning authentically and predictably, just as it should. I've written about this before in the blog but just to remind you, an unforeseen and tragic automobile accident where there is a loss of life is in God's control not because God reaches out and pushes one car into another, but because God created a universe where if two heavy objects collide the materials within react according to physics in a predictable way.
Now that you understand, at least on a gut level, through these simple examples, how God 1) creates and 2) controls (to put it simply, he creates the raw materials and the "rules" by which creation continues onward and interacts within itself) you can better understand the levels at which something is God's will. Let's start with returning to the open window with the warm breeze that waves the curtains.
It was God's will that he decided to create a universe in the first place. It is God's will that he created in the way that he did, that it is stable and consistent, but with growth, change and movement. It is God's will that living beings will find what they need to sustain life (such as light, warmth and air). It is God's will that some beings, humans mostly but some animals too, are smart enough to shape their own dwellings. It is God's will that humans benefit from wise decisions (seeking shelter in their dwellings when weather is harsh), but it is also God's will that the power of bad weather, for example, does not suddenly halt and become benign whenever someone makes a bad decision (such as taking a boat out into the stormy seas, and remember, Jesus had to miraculously intervene when the Apostles were set upon by a storm at sea). So it is God's will that all in all, he very very VERY rarely upends and overturns the laws by which the universe of time, energy and matter operates in order to miraculously sustain someone in a bad situation, of their making or not (such as a natural disaster). It is further God's will that humans (and animals) feel pleasure, including aesthetics, in life. Thus it is God's will that the warm breeze feels good, the sun uplifts one's spirit, and the waving of the curtain in the breeze feels homey and aesthetically pleasing. Likewise, if one misjudges and makes an error (such as putting a fragile vase in front of an open window with a strong breeze, and it is knocked down), it is God's will that oops, natural forces continue to work as expected. God neither knocks down the vase nor "makes you feel bad," but that is the natural outcome of the small actions in life as time, energy, matter and human free choice interact.
So when someone devout says, usually after a sad event or loss, that it is "God's will," that is actually not a simplistic observation. It is, rather, the wise summation of the creative, by God, the controlling, by God, and free choice, by humans or by happenstance, outcome for all of the above to exist at all as a result of God's will. Yes, then, when a person dies, his or her "time had come" and it is "God's will," but the slippery slope is that one must not imagine that God is pushing some baby into a swimming pool, or cramming one car into another, or "giving" a person cancer, etc. God created all those materials, energies and potentialities (according to free choice and situations) and it is his will that with very rare exceptions, the rewards or the consequences naturally result. What do I mean by potentialities? Well, I blogged about one example before, which is being around potentially cancer causing smoke. It's not like God has to, nor is it in his nature, to reach inside someone and "give" them "cancer." Further, God does not make a person crave smoking cigarettes. All those potentialities are a matter of chemistry, physics, human genetics and human free choice. It is God's will that life has limitations and dangers, but it is also God's will that humans can seek ways to maximize the benefits of well being. Water is great, and swimming is great, but lack of a fence and a watchful parent over a baby near water is unwise. Likewise tobacco might be pleasurable to smoke in a cigarette but the problem develops when it is done to excess and becomes a habit that stimulates potential cancer in one's self or second hand in others.
So when a person mourns that the loss of a loved one is "God's will," that person is being pious and correct if they realize, as most have done so before these past few generations, that the life that one is given is unpredictable, that life is robust and forgiving while at the same time fragile and subject to defect, and that it is indeed the person's "time" because God will not intervene (except in those rare miraculous circumstances) when the known factors of a person's potential demise intersect. An example of an intersection is 1) smoking to excess 2) being of weak health or prone to easy damage 3) unable or unwilling to receive treatment. God does not 1) make the person smoke to excess 2) "give" him or her bad genes or 3) deprive them of treatment or give them a negative and bad attitude about available treatment. You see what I mean?
Moderns have become, for reasons I've discussed before 1) paranoid 2) narcissistic 3) excessively "magical" thinking and 4) disbelieving in the ultimate goodness of God and God alone. Thus there has been (and I pray that this is changing) an increasing obsession that somehow long life and wonderfulness has been guaranteed to everyone (and some of that is the "deeds" over grace error of thought) and that when an intersection of natural law and situations/human choices occurs that God (or "alien" or "other" forces) have "singled out" a person or group for hardship. That's not only wrong but it's dangerous because one then discards not only authentic belief in God but one also discards common sense and proper survival instincts and thinking.
Imagine if someone actually thought that when he opened the window and the sun shone and the breeze blew and the curtains waved that God was just standing there, waving that big peacock feather fan at him, turning on the tanning lamp and just giving him his own personal spa treatment. You'd think that person was crazy, right? Well, as I said, unfortunately many people have gotten on that slippery slope as they should have known better and worse, raised their children or taught their students that entire warped mindset. Thus many young people are paranoid and narcissistic because they feel so manipulated and at the behest of an arbitrary world filled with "unfairness" and "forces" that must be appeased/controlled! By the way, when I say "unfairness" I mean "not fair" by some human standard; I don't mean unjust because then I'd be in total agreement: the world is filled with human injustice and unrighteousness. But the word "fair" in popular thought (separate from political or legal thought) has come to mean that one's life seems disproportionate to one's expectations, and thus subject to some mysterious dispensation of favor or punishment. That kind of thinking results in attitudes such as, just for an easy example, that the life providing process by which a human body makes and stores fat is somehow bad and must be tamed. Um, no one would be alive if the body could not make and store fat, duh. But this paranoid separation from reality (both faith reality and secular reality) results in some messed up thinking.
I yearn for the time when people understood this, as they all did, prior to the last fifty years or so (with a few lunatic exceptions, of course, none of whom I need to name here).
Anyway, rather than get into that whole mess (again) in discussion, I'd rather leave you with this hopefully helpful simple analogy for understanding how God does indeed create, control and exert his will.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Go ahead and hate the Catholic Church
Honestly, it does not bother me at all. I'm posting this just to save some time and energy for those who go further and further in their hatred of the Church, trying to get some additional pain or reaction from me, or others. No lie, I could not care less if a billion people hated the Catholic Church as badly as the worst of them (check comments section of any article about religion to see what I mean.) God's truth: I could not care less if one billion people or more hated the Catholic Church just as much as the most despising individuals we see today. Why is that?
You can hate the Catholic Church to pieces, but it doesn't change the fact that there is a God, one to whom everyone, both people who are guilty of abuse in the Church AND haters in general, must be accountable to.
People keep confusing the institution with the reality of God. You know what that is? Darwin at work.
To hate a religious institution because of the abuse of some or even "many" is in opposition to one's own survival traits (terminology I've used before) and thus is "Darwin at work" for two reasons:
1. By hating the Catholic Church you diminish your own faith in God in general, regardless of your denomination and woe especially to you if you are atheist, as it's blinders on top of blinders.
2. By hating priest sex abusers you channel all your presumed "righteous indignation" toward the Church and away from, oh, I don't know, maybe parents who rape their own babies' behinds and mouths, give them drugs, sell (or trade them) for sex, or who have incest with their older children, or pose infants to teenagers for porn. I'm not a statistician but I could make a smart bet that there's much more of that, which ruins generations and destroys intimacy (and murders) many more individuals than all the abuse in the Church, and that's assuming a lot.
By doing any of the above you are diminishing your own survival traits and just fulfilling Darwin, like the clown who says "watch this" while handing a beer to his friend.
So pour on the hate: I am serious. Let's see how much we have to deal with and then the peanut gallery of good natured but uninvolved people on the sidelines will eventually say, just as I explained above, "Hmm. As outrageous as the abuse was, and how grievous, is the Catholic Church really the source of all perversion in the world?" *Glances at the newspaper and sees another "boyfriend" stuck his **** into his girlfriend's infant before beating it to death.*
Sooner or later if people are going to survive at all, they are going to have to get proportional and sane again. If on the way to that road (which may result in the Second Coming, by the way, where there are more disappointed people than joyful ones) you have to reach spittle flying total hatred for the Catholic Church, go ahead, it does not raise my blood pressure, nor make me boo hoo hoo into my hanky. I just think, with a small amount of chortling, how surprised YOU all will be when you discover that you can hate abusing doctors, but that does not mean that medicine is invalid. Get ready for God to pin that medal on your chest (or Satan to pin it on your backside).
And, just for a little theology, let's come up with an awful scenario. Let's suppose that millions of people rose up in hatred against the Church and individual Catholics, oppressing, attacking and even murdering them. Theologically that's an awesome thing, because even those lukewarm cafeteria Catholics would become martyrs, and we all know (if we actually read the Bible) how all martyrs are glorified by God for eternity.
Have a nice day!
You can hate the Catholic Church to pieces, but it doesn't change the fact that there is a God, one to whom everyone, both people who are guilty of abuse in the Church AND haters in general, must be accountable to.
People keep confusing the institution with the reality of God. You know what that is? Darwin at work.
To hate a religious institution because of the abuse of some or even "many" is in opposition to one's own survival traits (terminology I've used before) and thus is "Darwin at work" for two reasons:
1. By hating the Catholic Church you diminish your own faith in God in general, regardless of your denomination and woe especially to you if you are atheist, as it's blinders on top of blinders.
2. By hating priest sex abusers you channel all your presumed "righteous indignation" toward the Church and away from, oh, I don't know, maybe parents who rape their own babies' behinds and mouths, give them drugs, sell (or trade them) for sex, or who have incest with their older children, or pose infants to teenagers for porn. I'm not a statistician but I could make a smart bet that there's much more of that, which ruins generations and destroys intimacy (and murders) many more individuals than all the abuse in the Church, and that's assuming a lot.
By doing any of the above you are diminishing your own survival traits and just fulfilling Darwin, like the clown who says "watch this" while handing a beer to his friend.
So pour on the hate: I am serious. Let's see how much we have to deal with and then the peanut gallery of good natured but uninvolved people on the sidelines will eventually say, just as I explained above, "Hmm. As outrageous as the abuse was, and how grievous, is the Catholic Church really the source of all perversion in the world?" *Glances at the newspaper and sees another "boyfriend" stuck his **** into his girlfriend's infant before beating it to death.*
Sooner or later if people are going to survive at all, they are going to have to get proportional and sane again. If on the way to that road (which may result in the Second Coming, by the way, where there are more disappointed people than joyful ones) you have to reach spittle flying total hatred for the Catholic Church, go ahead, it does not raise my blood pressure, nor make me boo hoo hoo into my hanky. I just think, with a small amount of chortling, how surprised YOU all will be when you discover that you can hate abusing doctors, but that does not mean that medicine is invalid. Get ready for God to pin that medal on your chest (or Satan to pin it on your backside).
And, just for a little theology, let's come up with an awful scenario. Let's suppose that millions of people rose up in hatred against the Church and individual Catholics, oppressing, attacking and even murdering them. Theologically that's an awesome thing, because even those lukewarm cafeteria Catholics would become martyrs, and we all know (if we actually read the Bible) how all martyrs are glorified by God for eternity.
Have a nice day!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Another thought about what I just wrote
I know people who like to argue (or "better understand" to put it charitably) will run to their Bibles to look for passages about how people's days are numbered etc. They will say, "See! The Bible says each person's days are numbered and their time is up!"
Listen, again, I am trying to orient you back toward wise reading of those passages, rather than defensive and agenda driven reading of them.
What would I say, if I was a pastor, talking to this family? I would say "God is in control" rather than "It was God's will that her time was up." "God is in control" is the more accurate Christian contemporary type of abbreviated condolence saying because it is not targeted on the death of the person herself. "God is in control" of everything, which means the dispensation of all people and agencies involved at all times. God does not focus his will or control on just one person's accidental death. God is in control of the ultimate outcome of all of human beings' own actions. God makes all things good; God does not make the errors. So to comfort a family you tell them that God is in control, assuring them that justice, mercy and blissful joy will be awarded to even those who suffer at the hands of deliberate or accidental cruelty and loss by other humans.
That is the meaning that all days are numbered, which is there are limitations, and God in his all knowing knows in advance what people will do to each other, and the number of days each person has before age, mishap or illness catches up with them. It's a totally different meaning than God winding up some clock for each person! Gosh I hate that New Age thinking. God knows and foresees all that happens and it is "his will" that it takes place because he does not intervene, in general, in how humans manage themselves. He is not disinterested, and the Holy Spirit works tirelessly to convert and bring everyone to more charitable and responsible behavior, for the glorification of God and for the survivability of humanity. So no one can accuse God of being some detached blob of "universal energy" "detached" and "not caring" about what goes on with individuals, each of whom, truth be told, he knows in their very soul and cares about deeply.
People keep forgetting about guardian angels too. They are not guardian angels in the sense of throwing themselves in front of irresponsible drivers to save their charges from disaster. They are, though, the voice that whispers "Don't drink and drive" and "Put on your seat belt" and "Care about your neighbor." Guardian angels are just one proof that no human lives, or dies, alone. Remember that when this lady in the car hit and run died, her guardian angel went to see God with her. That's an uncaring God? Get over yourselves, please!
Now, Muslims often use the expression "It is God's will." They will say it at times like this, such as tragically losing a family member. But they really are saying "God is in control" because when they say "It is God's will" they are not saying "God did this to her," but they are confessing their knowledge that God is in control of everything, and that events like this fall within his universal control and will. Again, this is a broader and thus more theologically accurate statement than what Christians have come to mean in these personally obsessive and "God limiting" phrases and observations. So when a Muslim says "It is God's will (that a person died)" they will not claim that they know what God is planning or thinking, or even how God perceives humans at all. They mean "God is in control and it is his will that events like this do happen (because he has given life to humans and life does have sorrow and loss by definition.)" Muslims, no matter what sect they are, have a firm and accurate perception of God that God is unknowable and has a much more vast scope of control and perspective than humans could ever have, and that no one event or human life can be interpreted as being a humanly understandable example of his taking action. It is God's will but it cannot be claimed that a human understands what, if any, action God is taking in a human life or event. Only Christians and others who think they can cut God down into understandable parcels think like that. Muslims don't.
I hope this helps. My next blog posting touches, actually, even though I wrote it earlier this morning, on an extreme example of where people need to better understand how they cannot characterize God's will in any correct or understandable way.
Listen, again, I am trying to orient you back toward wise reading of those passages, rather than defensive and agenda driven reading of them.
What would I say, if I was a pastor, talking to this family? I would say "God is in control" rather than "It was God's will that her time was up." "God is in control" is the more accurate Christian contemporary type of abbreviated condolence saying because it is not targeted on the death of the person herself. "God is in control" of everything, which means the dispensation of all people and agencies involved at all times. God does not focus his will or control on just one person's accidental death. God is in control of the ultimate outcome of all of human beings' own actions. God makes all things good; God does not make the errors. So to comfort a family you tell them that God is in control, assuring them that justice, mercy and blissful joy will be awarded to even those who suffer at the hands of deliberate or accidental cruelty and loss by other humans.
That is the meaning that all days are numbered, which is there are limitations, and God in his all knowing knows in advance what people will do to each other, and the number of days each person has before age, mishap or illness catches up with them. It's a totally different meaning than God winding up some clock for each person! Gosh I hate that New Age thinking. God knows and foresees all that happens and it is "his will" that it takes place because he does not intervene, in general, in how humans manage themselves. He is not disinterested, and the Holy Spirit works tirelessly to convert and bring everyone to more charitable and responsible behavior, for the glorification of God and for the survivability of humanity. So no one can accuse God of being some detached blob of "universal energy" "detached" and "not caring" about what goes on with individuals, each of whom, truth be told, he knows in their very soul and cares about deeply.
People keep forgetting about guardian angels too. They are not guardian angels in the sense of throwing themselves in front of irresponsible drivers to save their charges from disaster. They are, though, the voice that whispers "Don't drink and drive" and "Put on your seat belt" and "Care about your neighbor." Guardian angels are just one proof that no human lives, or dies, alone. Remember that when this lady in the car hit and run died, her guardian angel went to see God with her. That's an uncaring God? Get over yourselves, please!
Now, Muslims often use the expression "It is God's will." They will say it at times like this, such as tragically losing a family member. But they really are saying "God is in control" because when they say "It is God's will" they are not saying "God did this to her," but they are confessing their knowledge that God is in control of everything, and that events like this fall within his universal control and will. Again, this is a broader and thus more theologically accurate statement than what Christians have come to mean in these personally obsessive and "God limiting" phrases and observations. So when a Muslim says "It is God's will (that a person died)" they will not claim that they know what God is planning or thinking, or even how God perceives humans at all. They mean "God is in control and it is his will that events like this do happen (because he has given life to humans and life does have sorrow and loss by definition.)" Muslims, no matter what sect they are, have a firm and accurate perception of God that God is unknowable and has a much more vast scope of control and perspective than humans could ever have, and that no one event or human life can be interpreted as being a humanly understandable example of his taking action. It is God's will but it cannot be claimed that a human understands what, if any, action God is taking in a human life or event. Only Christians and others who think they can cut God down into understandable parcels think like that. Muslims don't.
I hope this helps. My next blog posting touches, actually, even though I wrote it earlier this morning, on an extreme example of where people need to better understand how they cannot characterize God's will in any correct or understandable way.
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