thoughts on stuff

I have been thinking a lot the last few days about God. I guess this is not too atypical. The hurricane has brought some of it on, and a conversation with my friend Caroline, and all sorts of things.

When I lived in Florida, the FSU baseball team was out on the West Coast, as I recall they were playing Stanford, but I could be wrong about the team. On their way to the stadium, the bus driver had a heart attack and died, and somehow one of the assistant coaches managed to get him out of the way, steer the bus safely to the side of the road, and avoid an accident. All of this in the middle of a busy California freeway. The gal who worked in the cubicle next to mine said something like, "I don't know how you could hear that story and not believe in God."

I was driving around today and the old Alabama song, "Roll On" came on the radio. And in the song, the same point is made; the main character drives a truck for a living, and is lost in a snow storm.

Oh, but the man upstairs was listening
When momma asked him to bring daddy home
And when the call came in it was daddy on the other end
Askin' her if she had been singin' the song

Lance Armstrong is everywhere on the news these days, and his story is truly remarkable. He was near death with testicular cancer that had spread to the lungs and brain. You just don't survive that, and yet he not only survived, but rebounded to win one of the most greuling events in sports seven times in a row. The magnitude of this accomplishment is boggles the mind. I do not know if he is a religious man or not, but there are stories of miraculous healings all the time, and people who credit God for their healing.

But I am always drawn to the flip side of the equation, too. If God gets credit for saving the FSU baseball team a few years ago, what happened with the thousands of accidents that took countless lives since? If God has the power to stop them - which would be required for giving credit in the one case - why not others? If Lance Armstrong was healed by God, why not Becky? Why not the countless others who die so prematurely from these diseases?

I don't know the answers to these questions. That is what is so frustrating about the whole deal. But I do know I am not quick to give God credit for the seemingly miraculous things that happen in our lives because I do not want to turn around and be forced to condemn God when the miraculous does not occur.