The Law of Unintended Consequences

10/7/2011

Weather Report From Heaven: Sunny and bright, with an abundance of light and lots of singing and rejoicing.

Bible Verse of the Day: Psalm 9:15 " The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug. Their feet are caught in the net they have hidden."

When Nations turn away from God, the results can be devastating. Throughout the old testament of the Bible, there is a seemingly never ending cycle of deliverance and pain that takes place with the Nation of Israel and God. God will do something amazing for His "chosen" people and then after an amount of time goes by, they will turn their back on God and start trying to do things on their own accord. From their own prideful position, they suffer and then they fall, and then God will have to humble them through a painful trial in order to have them turn back to Him for their deliverance once again. God loves overcoming huge odds and doing things that can only be done through His supreme power and wisdom, but at some point you get the idea that He is just sitting up in Heaven shaking His head, going, here we go again. You still don't believe in me, do you? Oh yeah of little faith. Well, Israel continues to go through the peaks and valleys of their relationship with God as their faith ebbs and flows like the ocean's tide. Every time they think they've arrived as a Nation, someone in the command and control structure disobeys God's orders and they fall back into the pit they have dug for themselves as our Bible verse of the day above explains. Well, here we are thousands of years later, and the same challenges are happening right now in America. We have been a blessed Nation that was founded on the Judeo- Christian values espoused in the bible and we prospered more than any nation ever has because of our founders realization of our dependence on God. But as time has gone on and our financial success has grown, we have slowly but surely stopped given God the credit, and instead have become convinced that we are something special and that we are responsible for our prosperity. So we have slowly and surely legislated God out of certain areas of our Country's foundational structure, the classroom, the courtroom, the public marketplace, the nativity scenes of our cities. The consequences speak for themselves. Our Country has fallen into the pit we have dug. We have become the victims of what we asked for. Freedom from God that the Atheist movement has espoused, leads to a Nation free of the blessings of God. We wonder where God is? He is right where we have put him, in the bleachers, just waiting for us to invite Him back to where He should be, leading us on the playing field. The parallels between what happened to Israel in the Old Testament and what we are going through now in America are striking. Our prideful condition has led us to suffer the unintended consequences of our own success. The unintended consequences of our actions have led to our decline as a nation. In the story of King Midas the law of unintended consequences is best laid out. King Midas gets his wish and everything he touches turns to gold. At first glance, Midas is as happy as can be with the granting of his wish. He is only focused on the wealth benefits of having gold anywhere at anytime in his fingertips. He can be the wealthiest man in the world and buy anything he desires. Everything changed for Midas though was the unintended consequences of his granted wish began to manifest themselves and he realized that by touching his loved ones they became lifeless and by his embrace all food became inedible. Suddenly, all the wealth in the world lost its meaning if he would never have anyone to share it with, nor would he ever have any food to eat. This story reminded me to be very careful in what I pray for in my life. The old saying of be careful what you wish for because you just might get flashed into my mind. Sometimes not getting what we prayed for is God protecting us from the law of unintended consequences. We may not even realize it until much later in our life, or until after we die, but we must trust that sometimes by God not answering our prayers, He is actually working more powerfully in our lives than if he did. In my own life, I have often prayed for comfort, but later realized that He wanted me to have deeper character. He was working for my eternal benefit rather than for a short term need that I perceived to be important. He was protecting me from myself, knowing that I was not ready to handle all of the temptations that would come with "material comfort." I am hoping that someday, should that in fact be a blessing He bestows upon me, that I will be ready to handle it, like in Matthew 25:21 when Jesus says to His servant " Well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Master's happiness." That is something that someday I hope to hear my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ whisper in my ear, "well done my good and faithful servant." I pray for our country to have a revival, that we can find our way back to the dependence on God that made us great. I pray for myself that I will never turn my back on the one who saved me!