I do not believe the spiritual world is arbitrary. I’m a physicist by training and, without going into specifics about it, I mean that I have at least graduate level degrees in physics and physics related fields. I tend to believe there are rules. You know, physical laws and things. My intuition is that the same is true for the realm of the spirit. I think the God who made the one also made the other and that he made them each to operate in similar ways. Perhaps this is counter your expectation. Movies, books, T.V. shows, they always tend to portray the supernatural or the paranormal as simply random. Such things are painted as unintelligible events that happen without rhyme or reason. I don’t think it works that way. I believe there’s a method to the madness.
One rule is that God wastes stuff.
A mom and a child argue about whether or not broccoli should be eaten. God is on the child’s side.
“We should not waste our food!” The mother shouts.
“But I don’t like it.” The child responds.
“Your father and I worked hard to give you that food. We’re not going to waste it.”
In my head God is standing over the child’s shoulder, staring at the mother with a confused look on his face. “But… he doesn’t like it.”
That’s because when a baby is made only one sperm in half a billion is used. The rest come to nothing.
This is okay.
Every year the oak trees drop billions of acorns, of which only a fraction of a fraction will ever take root. Likewise all the pollen that’s in the air each spring mostly accomplishes no end. How many stars are there in the universe? Of those, how many have planets? Of those planets how many have any life going on on them at all? Only one (that we know of). At any rate, it appears that in our solar system most of the potentially habitable bodies were not used. I’m making up a number here but it doesn’t seem far fetched to say that, of all the planets where life could live in the universe, on 99.9999999999% of them, it doesn’t. In other words, roughly about as many wasted planets as wasted sperm.
That’s okay too.
To the divine mind, there’s always more. Scarcity isn’t a thing to God. Everything exists in infinite amounts. Why wouldn’t it? God exists outside of time. One tree plus infinite time equals all the trees in the world. I believe this is why our worries about not having enough are puzzling to God, why they frustrate him.
“Don’t you know that you’re an eternal soul that’s going to live forever?” He asks. “Why are you worried there won’t be enough?” To his mind, from his perspective, most of our fears are silly. We’re living as though there’s a finite amount of resources, or space, or time. “Look up at the sky!” God says. “Does that look finite to you!?”
Paradoxically though, a corollary to the rule that God wastes is that God only really delivers right when something is necessary. Personally I don’t like their cars but when Toyota figured out just-in-time delivery they were onto something profound. God didn’t bother to save Daniel until he was actually in the lion’s den. When it was really necessary. Jesus could’ve went to heal Lazarus before he died, but that wasn’t God’s way. God promised that Abraham would have a son. He waited to deliver until Abraham and Sarah were so old they were as good as dead. Why? Lots of people will say that it was to show his power. They claim that God waits so that people will see that he can do anything, and fix any problem they have, therefore they shouldn’t fear. I don’t think that’s wrong, I just think there’s more to it. It’s not simply a display of power. That makes God sound like a bit of a showboat. A narcissist. A “Hey, look what I can do! Aren’t I awesome!?” kind of deity. In my opinion, God’s too humble for that. Rather, I think God is a God of the Last Minute because that’s all that’s needed. There are infinite possibilities sure, but remember that he doesn’t mind wasting almost all of them. “Maybe King Darius will have a last minute change of heart and not put Daniel in the lion’s den, and then I won’t have to do anything.”
You may rightly object here that I make it sound like God doesn’t know the future but understand I’m trying to translate my idea about God’s motives into our language. Unlike God we aren’t outside of time and so any discussion about what things are like for him will be a little garbled. He does know what’s going to happen of course but nonetheless I believe there is value to him in letting it play out. If he intervened all the time and controlled our movements, would his creation actually be alive?
I’ve experienced miracles. I shared before on the podcast that God healed my son of a somewhat serious throat condition. His vocal chords wouldn’t close fully when he swallowed and he would often get choked on food. It could get scary. The doctors had video of his vocal chords failing to operate properly, both optical camera down the throat and fluoroscopic x-ray movies. It was pretty obvious. The left side just didn’t work. It closed at maybe twenty-five percent capacity. Per the doctor’s recommendations we scheduled a surgery to have filler injected into his vocal chords to plump them up so they would form a seal when he swallowed and prevent choking. I was happy to have the option of surgery but also worried. What if something didn’t go well. What if he had an allergic reaction to the filler. What if it changed his voice and he didn’t like it? Typical parent fears. I prayed that God would spare him.
Months of praying went by. I didn’t get upset about my prayers not being answered. I figured God’s plan was just to heal him through the hands of the doctors, which, as I talked about here, was good enough for me. Nonetheless, I figured it couldn’t hurt to continue asking. So I did. Everyday. The day of the surgery arrived and we went to the children’s hospital and sat by his bedside until they wheeled him away. This hospital and the staff there were very kind. Even with Covid protocols in place they allowed both of us to be there with him to make him feel safer. I won’t forget that kindness. About forty minutes later after they’d put him to sleep and wheeled him into the operating theater, we got a call on the room phone. The surgeon didn’t see anything wrong with the vocal chords. Both sides looked equally healthy and strong. The surgeon said he must have misdiagnosed him. I asked how that was possible when we had it on video. He just shrugged and said he didn’t know. They brought my son back and he woke up and had a popsicle. We went home. He hasn’t had the choking problem since.
From God’s perspective, I think, all of our worries that our son would choke and die or swallow something into his lungs and get an infection, were unfounded. God wasn’t worried about it because he’d promised me (I believe) that my son would be okay. It wasn’t until we were about to do something permanent to him to fix it (surgery) that God stepped in. You might say, well okay but why would that matter? Why not just let the surgery happen and then miraculously undo it after? Oh. Because God lets our choices stand. That makes our choices real. If we take a road, we took it. Doesn’t mean we can’t take new roads to get back to where we were, but we can’t undo the past. When God let’s you choose to do things, he’s really letting you choose. I realize this gets a little fuzzy, forgive me, we’re trying to distill the motives and perspectives of the infinite down into the finite. Some blurring of the message is unavoidable.
From the divine perspective I think there were an infinite number of ways any of those scenerios that ended in miracles could’ve played out and God saw no issue in wasting nearly all of them. He only needs one. The men who betrayed Daniel might’ve confessed to what they’d done and spared Daniel from the den. The lions might have gotten in a fight and killed one another before he was tossed in. Lazarus might’ve gotten better if he’d found good medicine. Sarah might’ve conceived naturally if they’d tried a little more. It was only when all those other options were exhausted that God moved.
This is why God asks for faith. Again, it’s not an arbitrary request. If he’s made a promise, it will be kept, but it might really, really, really, not seem like it while 99.9999999999% of all the possible ways to keep it fade away around you. “Don’t worry,” God says. “I just need one.”
“How will I make it?” You ask, staring at the pile of bills on the table.
“Have no worry for tomorrow,” says Jesus, “tomorrow will worry about itself.”
“But what are we going to eat?”
“Does not God feed the birds of the air?”
“How will I get my kids new clothes for school?”
“Consider the lilies of the field, are they not clothed more beautifully than kings?”
And the whole time God is promising you this, you watch it continue not to happen. Jobs don’t come through. You don’t get that call-back. Unexpected expenses crop up. Your buddy actually can’t loan you that cash.
“Have faith.” Is God’s response. “You will be okay.”
But, we get scared. We don’t have faith. We get afraid that we’re not going to have what we need. We make bad choices to correct that problem, and God lets our choices stand. Maybe we lie on our resumé to get that next job we apply for. Maybe we try do pull a scam. Maybe we just go the good old fashioned route of shop lifting or selling our bodies for cash. OnlyFans is a thing for just this reason. Maybe instead of all that we just panic and lash out at those around us and ruin our relationships over money and the fear of where it’s going to come from.
God let’s our choices stand.
That’s part of the divine science. God is a God of infinite possibilities but he only needs the one. He asks for faith because the one is all he needs. Anything more would be too controlling, it would limit our choices, it would make his creation less free acting, less alive. None of this is arbitrary. None of it is just made up. Things are as they are because God is who he is. Infinite. Someone to whom the idea of scarcity doesn’t even make sense.
Have faith and don’t fall into sin out of fear. You will be okay. As Julian of Norwich proclaimed from her cell:
"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."
Thank you so much for your writing.I look forward to it.These are messages I need to hear today,right now.
Certain people do and will reject the free gift of eternal life. But is it true to assume that Christ has already died for the sins of these people. Something i've been thinking of lately. Maybe this relates to the idea of "waste". Just a thought.