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Jesuit Tony de Mello told a fine story about a parachutist who is taken by the wind and ends up hanging helplessly from a tree.
Seeing a lone traveler with a mule passing on the road, he shouts down to him, "Where am I?"
The traveler replies, "You are up a tree."
The chutist says, "You must be a part of the clergy."
The traveler is astonished and says, "As a matter of fact, I am, but how did you know?"
The chutist answers, "Because what you say is perfectly true, but completely useless!"
There are more promises of God in the eighth chapter of Romans than we have time for. And now I will risk a word that may sound a useless thing; it is about Providence, the Doctrine of God's Providence.
Paul writes in Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
It is God who takes even that which is adverse and painful (and it is your adversity that is your point of development) and brings profit out of it.
When the verse says "for the good" it does not mean that things work out so that believers preserve their comfort and convenience. Rather, such action on God's part enables these difficult experiences to assist in a person's growing up. An example is in Jeremiah 18 where God's role is that He is the potter and we are the clay.
As the potter molds us or shapes a clay pot on the potter's wheel, defects often appear. The potter has power over the clay, to permit the defects to remain or to reshape the pot.
Our strategy should be willing and receptive to God's impact on us. As we yield to God, he begins reshaping us into valuable vessels.
John Calvin uses a surprising term to describe our neglect of the doctrine of God's providence in the course of our everyday lives. He calls it superstition.
Superstitious people wrongly attribute supernatural power to things that do not actually possess that power: a black cat, a mirror breaking, a ladder overhead, salt thrown over your shoulder. But what does superstition have to do with providence? The classical view of providence teaches that God has ultimate control of everything in the universe, including the free choices and actions (good and bad) of all people. It is superstitious to think and feel and act as though other human beings (and black cats) possess ultimate causality in what they do. We're ascribing God's role to them.
Symptoms
of a
superstitious
Christian
1. We become Avoiders
Superstitious people avoid black cats, broken mirrors, ladders and Friday the 13th. We also avoid people who intimidate us with their words and actions.
2. We become Manipulators of People
Superstitious people manipulate salt by throwing it over their shoulders and wood by knocking on it. We try to manipulate people. We do what we think necessary to make them happy with us. Why? We are ascribing too much power to them.
3. We Worship People
Superstitious people give credit to the stars, to their lucky rabbit's foot, to their horseshoe over the door, and not enough credit to God. And in that way we hinder our development, usefulness and contentment when we ascribe God's role to others.
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Finding Faith is written by area pastors. This week's column comes from Pastor Taylor Camerer of Great Island Presbyterian Church, Lock Haven.