Are You All In?
“Before man are life and death, good and evil,
whichever he chooses shall be given him.”Sirach 15:17
When people question why God allows bad things happen to good people, the answers usually always involve “free will.” Some argue if God was all powerful why doesn’t he just stop bad things from happening? Why doesn’t He stop the earthquake in Turkey and Syria that has claimed more than 20,000 lives already? Although this last question cannot really be answered with “free will” because the tectonic plates and fault lines do not have free will. But, in other cases, such as why did God not spare the mother and child from the horrific car accident when a drunk driver swerved over the center line? The drunk driver exercised his free will to drink to the point he was impaired and decided to get behind the wheel. One may ask, but why didn’t God stop the car from turning on? Our God is not a magician or a god that does things for us in exchange for offerings. Our God is a God of relationship who loved His creation into existence and gave to the “apex of creation” — human beings, the gift of free will and free choice, and a gift as great as that comes with it consequences. In His infinite love, God gave us the freedom to choose right or wrong, life or death, good or evil, and will not interfere with our human agency because that will violate His gift to us.
In our freedom we must choose between right and wrong, good and evil, and life and death. And in the same freedom we must accept and endure the consequences that come with that decision. If I choose not to study for a test, I will need to accept the consequence that I will not achieve a perfect score. I cannot simply say a prayer in the morning and pray that my loving God will magically grant me an A because He knows this test will determine either I fail or pass the course. If that did happen, then we do not have a loving God, instead, we have an enabling genie. I do not know about you, but I will choose a God over a genie any day because the former knows us and loves us while the latter (if it did exist) simply executes a command regardless of its benefit or lack thereof to its commander.
As Christians we need to make a decision to either follow God or not to follow God. Our spiritual lives cannot be lukewarm. Jesus reminds His followers, “let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no,’” for anything else is from the evil one (Matthew 5:37). However, I must say, most Christians, myself included, are lukewarm in their faith and pursuit of God and holiness. We choose to follow the commandments of verses of Scripture that fit our own agendas but disregard those that challenge our “beliefs.” That’s not how following Christ works. We either follow Him or we don’t. For Catholics, we either follow solemnly defined Church teaching as revealed by God or we do not. And if we do not, then we are not true followers. This is the point where presumption creeps in. “Oh, I cannot follow this teaching but God will understand my situation…” Yes, He knows Your situation but He has also revealed the Truth to you in His Son. Will you allow His Truth to bring your situation into the light and bring good out of it? Do you think a loving Father will allow His child to dwell in what is harmful to him or her? God sees us and loves us but He will not enable us. Sometimes love hurts because it is doing its job of cleansing, purifying, and sanctifying.
Will we trust our loving God and choose to follow Him and dwell in His love even though it will mean trials and suffering? Will our faith in Him and His love lead us to going all in? Because at the end of the day we are either all in or not in at all. We either follow the Lord or we do not. May we ask the Lord to grant us the courage and fortitude to trust in Him and to allow Him to lead us to Himself, knowing that He too will walk with us through our valleys of darkness because He Himself was not spared the Cross.
