Here's a question that I was asked the other day. 'Does God change traffic lights?'
I think my response would be 'no - but He could if He wanted to'.
What is behind the question? I think there are some people who believe that if they are five minutes late for an important appointment God will make all the traffic lights green and then delay their train leaving the station by six minutes so they can still make it. But what about all the other people on the train who are now frustrated and six minutes late for whatever important things they have to do?
What does this say about our view of ourselves and our view of God. Who is the centre of our universe? Does the world revolve around me?
Then a second question. 'Assuming that God does change traffic lights and if you're approaching a junction and the lights change - are they more likely to go 'red' or 'green'. Speaking personally I think that they are more likely to go red, simply because I am always in a rush to get somewhere or do something, and it wouldn't hurt to sit quietly for a couple of minutes - an ideal opportunity to practice patience!
[I guess the proper answer to the second question is 'it depends - if the lights are amber then they'll go red, if red and amber then they'll go green'].
One final question for you. ''Assuming that God does change traffic lights and if you're approaching a junction and the lights are about to change to red why do you speed up rather than press the brake?
7 comments:
Your final question gets near the bone. When I could have stopped without screeching the tyres but instead step on the gas to beat a red light, I'm disregarding at least two clear Biblical principles:
1) I'm disobeying the traffic authorities who programmed the traffic light, and God gave them their authority for my good (Romans 13.1-5).
2) I don't like it when other drivers delay me by going through red lights, so... "in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you." (Matthew 7.12)
Deep. Never thought about it that way.
I got 3 points on my license for speeding up and going through a red light - thought it was a noble cause trying to get to a friend in need quickly
so now, I don't. well not mostly!
By the way, its news to me that the universe doesn't rotate around me! (I'm being facetious!)
Verona
Do you mean by "does God change traffic lights?": is God controlling everything or not?
On that subject I'd like to quote Gene Roddenberry :
"We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes."
Would Gene Roddenbury be the guy who wrote Star Trek, or am I getting him mixed up with someone else?
God did not create faulty humans - God created humans who have the choice to do what they want to do - i.e. He did not create robots who would only do what they were told to do. And with freedom comes consequences. We have the choice to do what we want but we must be prepared for the consequences.
The thought behind the question was not so much 'does God control everything', because I do believe that God is in control. It was more a question of whether God would alter the lighting sequence of a set of traffic lights just for me - because I am late for a meeting or something. I believe that God could do this - but I believe that a theology that would encourage me to pray 'turn green, turn green, turn green' as I approach a junction, is a theology that has 'me' too close to the centre, where God is supposed to be.
Gene Roddenbury was indeed the creator of Star Trek.
I want to comment on a point of yours. You assert "God is in control". You also presumably believe God loves children.
What did God think in the past when he looked down on children in polio wards?
Did he look at the pain and suffering of innocent children, and think it was good? Did it have a purpose?
Did God cease to have a purpose for polio the moment the vaccine became readily available?
Does God still have a purpose in allowing under-privileged children to suffer who are not vaccinated?
Isn't it odd that the probability that God will have a purpose in a child suffering from polio has a direct correlation with whether or not the child was vaccinated?
Aren't these much more important questions than whether God changes the traffic lights or not for anybody?
With the last post we're moving away from a question that has something to do with what I believe when I pray and on to the question of suffering.
This is a huge subject not least because any response requires a consistant worldview. One response is indeed to see suffering, especially of the innocent, and conclude that either there is no God or if there is this god can't be in control - in which case, what kind of god is he/she/it?
I believe in a God who is in control and who loves children. I believe in a God who 'weeps' at the suffering in the world. But to make sense of that, and respond to the inevitable question, 'so if He is God why doesn't He do something about it?' would require going into what I believe the Bible teaches about the beginning of all things, and the end of all things.
Rather than that a personal story... When my first daughter was born she was seriously ill, and for the first day there was the very real chance that both her and my wife could die. I can't describe what that feels like. This was supposed to be one of the happiest days of our life, something we had looked forward to for a long time. But even with the pain and the tears I knew that God was in control. I can't explain it, but there was a peace beyond understanding. I knew they could both still die, but I also knew that God would give me the strength because He would walk this road with me.
The next three weeks were very hard. Would my daughter regain consciousness, would she be paralysed, would there be any permanent damage to her brain, would she grow, would she ever walk...
But even without knowing the answers to those questions we knew that God was in control, and that, however difficult it was to understand, and however painful it was, we knew that He was somehow working out His purposes.
But none of that made it any easier when our second daughter, aged 2 days, was diagnosed with a serious heart condition that would require surgery (TOF).
I don't think there are any easy answers to the question of suffering, whether general or specific. Bad things happen to good people. Jesus knows that from personal experience. But I know that God is in control and that He gives peace in the middle of the termoil. I don't know that I can explain it - I've just experienced it.
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