Belief and Action

God Will Save Me
Anon. Y. Mous

There came a big flood, and the water around a man's home was rising steadily.

The man, standing at the front of the house, was watching water rising all around him when a man in a boat came along and said, "Get in the boat and I'll get you out of here. He replied, "No thanks, God will save me."

The man went into the house, and the water was starting to pour in so he went to the second floor.

As he looked out, another man in a boat came along, and called out, "Get in the boat and I'll get you out of here."

Again, the man replied, "No thanks. God will save me."

The water kept rising so he went up to the roof.

A helicopter flew over, and the pilot called down him, "I'll drop you a rope, grab onto it, and I'll get you out of here."

Again the man replied, "No thanks. God will save me."

The water continued to rise, and soon nearly covered the whole house. The man fell in, and drowned.

When he arrived in Heaven and saw God, he asked Him, "Why didn't you save me from that terrible flood? Did I not show you my faith?"

God replied, "What more would you have me do? I sent people in two boats and a helicopter?"

I remember the first time I heard this story. It is one of those things that left an impression immediately.

Some people question if they are doing right by God by indulging in phone sex, or doing other things that might be morally questionable for others. The question that always comes to mind for me is "How do you know that what you're doing isn't serving a purpose in God's eyes? How do you know that it isn't exactly perfect?"

For some that could be a rationalization that allows for questionable behaviors, but it seems to me that anything can be rationalized for any purpose. It seems to me that there are great pains that are inflicted on others in the name of God - and that is OK.

I am thinking about this today because I heard about the two couples who were killed by pirates. The news has taken great effort to mention that their yacht was filled with Bibles. While I am sad to hear such news, I can't help but wonder if there was a thought something like "We're doing God's work, and speaking His word, so He will protect us."

I want to be careful here, as any conversation like this is ripe for difficulty no matter how you slice it, and I also want to respect these four people who put themselves out there in a way so few will in the name of something they believed in.

However, there seems to be something here for us to look at and question. Do we do things because it is the right thing for us to do? Or do we do them because we believe that God (or some other power) believes it is the right thing for us to do? And, even more importantly, how do we tell the difference?

There is no way that I could know what the "right" thing was for these four people to do. I can only hope that they were doing what was best for them to do when they were doing it. I am sad for them and those that loved them that a gesture that I would believe to have the right intentions could end in such a violent way.

Every day - whether you believe in God, or not - there are "powers" that will tell you what the right thing is to do. They will tell you what to believe and how best to believe it. If you follow blindly, or make assumptions about how things are to be carried out, you might find yourself wondering "what the heck just happened?"

This is a complex topic that is difficult to cover in a short blog entry, as it would be easy to go off on many different tangents. However, in the end, what I am hoping to do is have you consider your considerations and see how the resulting actions fit for you...instead of allowing someone else or someone else's belief do it for you.