Q. Wsup!
A. Izao!
Q. I have a question here that came up in a group meeting we had juzi with some friends…
A. Shoot!
Q. So basically there was this guy who was asking how God comes into my day-to-day life. As in he sees how we may need God to move mountains and part seas and stuff… But not in walking or breathing or stuff I don’t even have to think about to do on my own.
Any comment on that?
A. I think philosophically it can be argued that a person can help you in at least one of two ways: in the actual gritty mechanics of a thing, like when you help clear the table or pay for someone’s school fees; or in the sense of inspiration or direction like when I work harder in the office because of the love I have for my family.
The first deals with the “what” and the “how” if you wish. And God does that at times. For example, He shows you how to forgive someone we had for all intents and purposes sworn never to forgive.
The second deals with the “why”. And that, all lovers do all the time. The reason behind one doing the simplest things as well as they can is usually their beloved: he eats specific foods and avoids others for his love of gym and a good physique; she doesn’t give up working even when she’s tired and frustrated because of the love for her struggling family; your friend could choose to walk rather than take a mat, because of his or her love for God.
Q. How does that work exactly?
A. Basically as a sacrifice… When you give up a luxury you have every right to, for the sake of your beloved… Maybe to save a few more shillings to buy her a soda…
Q. I see…
A. And that is to say nothing about the whole argument that we depend on God for our very existence and therefore for our every breath.
Q. Which argument is that?
A. Well I read it from an Australian lawyer… He writes:
If a carpenter makes a chair, he can leave it and the chair will not cease to be. For the material he used in its making has a quality called rigidity, by virtue of which it will retain its nature as a chair. The maker of the chair has left it, but the chair can still rely for continuance in existence upon the material he used, the wood.
Similarly, if the Maker of the universe left it, the universe, too, would have to rely for continuance in existence upon the material He used. NOTHING. In short, the truth that God used no material in our making carries with it the not-sufficiently-realized truth that GOD CONTINUES TO HOLD US IN BEING, and that UNLESS HE DID SO WE SHOULD SIMPLY CEASE TO BE.
So not only would walking and breathing be rather tricky, but even existing would be impossible.
Q. That sounds wiser than what you were trying to explain earlier
A. Geee. Thanks!
23rd June 2019