Our Guide

'Don't you mind him,' said Puddleglum. 'There are no accidents. Our guide is Aslan.' - The Silver Chair by CS Lewis.

Recently I feel like what I know has not been working itself out in how I live, I feel a great disconnect between the two. In writting this post I feel a sense of unqualification (if thats a word) to talk about such things when they have been far from my life - but I will none the less. After a recent email from Casey I have been thinking about recent events/headaches/heartaches of my life this quote I read today really stood out to me. It is very easy for me to lose hope. Not hope that things or circumstances will work out in my favor, but hope that what I'm going through, the struggles, pain, the sadness, and even the joy I experience counts for something - that it has a meaning. For me the loss of purpose or meaning, especially my trials, comes from my failure to dwell on the mind blowing reality that - there are no accidents, there is no chance. Nothing I experience - nothing Casey, nothing Jay experiences is an accident. It is powerfully purposeful, even in the most seemingly purposesless times. How is that so. The answer CS Lewis provides is - Aslan (Aslan is a portrayal of Christ in The Chronicles of Narnia) is our guide! And if Aslan is our guide, there are no accidents.

If there is only randomness, there can be no purpose, only unplanned results, however, if Aslan is our guide, if Christ rules and reigns with loving kindness and plans the sunsents and sunrises of our lives then purpose can be found - more than that - assured!!! What this does for me is reveal a massive ray of hope in my life because now I know that my pain is not wasted, it is not in vain - but has meaning because it is planned. Skeptics will say two things. God does not plan pain. To which I reply; pain is inevitable, what comforts you more, that pain is random and meaningless, or that it planned by a great God for a great Purpose and that none of it is meaningless? It is precisely the knowledge that my pain is planned that gives me hope. There is no hope in an accident, no assurance of meaning, no assurance of purpose - yet we know that God works all things after the counsel of his own perfect, loving, caring, gentle, mighty, powerful, gracious, wise will.

The other objection a skeptic might say is that this belief of God's planning the details of our lives is only made up by us to cope with evil that befalls us. To which I simply say, I could never dream up a reality more precious than the one revealed to me in the Bible. It seems too good to be true, but it is true none the less. For those who trust Jesus all things that happen to them, all events that God has planned, all the non-accidents in life work together for good!!! And it really doesnt get better than that. If we even for a moment try to complain or argue that God does not govern all things in our lives, that he is not responsible for even the hard times - our mouths are simply shut in front of the (almost) too good to be true reality that those ordained things work for our good and our joy, both here and in eternity. God has the final say - he ordains all things, and yet does them in a way that turns even the worst calamity on its head so that ultimately only good befalls the children of God. Absolutely Amazing - what greater truth can there be. There is a hope, there is a purpose - and the hope is that no matter how hard the circumstance, though I may lose a loved one, or even my own life it is for the display of the greatness and glory of Christ and for my good and my joy. Wow!!! Does it really get any better than to live in that reality and to humbly and thankfully submit to it.

Charles Spurgeon so believed this that he said, " I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes. " There are no accidents!!! Aslan - Christ the King - is our guide - and he works all things out for a great loving purpose - and should we be tempted to think God is mean by planning hard times, never forget God loves us, infinately, and the hardest thing he planned, the most painful thing he ordained, was not against you, it was against his son. God sent his perfect, innocent, precious son to die on a cross, in our place, so that we might be saved. Let any temptation of complaining about our pain, be checked against the pain that Jesus felt on the cross because he loved you so much.

Pray for me that I might display these realities in my life to my friends and at work - I fail miserably, but God is so good. Pray that I do not puruse the temporary, short lived pleasures of this world, but that I would puruse greater, more satisfying pleasures of knowing and sharing Christ. I've been running away from God lately - I'm tired of running.