Book: A Grace Disguised by Jerry Sittser
I wondered if my family had been cursed. I entertained the idea that the accident was a demonic attack. I looked with cynicism on the absurdity of Life. Maybe, I thought, there really is no God and no meaning to life. I resigned myself to misery and thereby yielding to its inexorability. These machinations of the Mind tormented me because I could not discover any explanation that made sense of the tragedy. An answer to the "Why?" question alluded me.
Life in this world is an accident waiting to happen and there is not much we can do about it. Common sense, of course, tells us to wear seatbelts and make wise decisions. These good habits will minimize accidents but not eliminate them. Did I really want to know what was going to happen in the future so that I could protect myself from the accidents that inevitably and randomly occur every person's life? And if I knew what accidents were looming ahead and could change the course of my life but wouldn't I want to know what accidents would befall me as a result of the new course I had set for myself? What I really wanted was to be God - an option obviously closed to me. So if I really wanted to protect myself from accidents I should lock myself inside an antiseptic bubble and live there for the rest of my life. But who would want that? Better to brace myself for accidents and injury as best I can. Better to give up my quest for control and live in Hope.
Maybe that is why most people seem to weather loss so well. They learn to live in hope. It is a Wonder, considering the suffering that awaits us all, how few of us live in constant dread, utterley immobilized about what may happen to us. Somehow we manage to live reasonably well, expecting the best, and when the time comes to face the worst, accepting it as part of the bargain of living in a fallen world. We are remarkably resilient creatures. When knocked down, most of us get up, like weeds bouncing back after being trampled. We love again, work again, and hope again. We think it is worth the risk and trouble to live in the world, though terrors surely await us, and we take our chances., All Things Considered, life is still worth living.
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