Our Choices

Hello World,

I’m using my daily thoughts and encounters to discover as many things as possible which bring together, rather than divide, our various belief systems and cultures.

A couple of things have happened this week which I wanted to talk about and share with you.  Firstly, a familiar question was posed to me recently, a question not just for Christians to field but one which we have all asked at some point: “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Of course, the real question being asked here is “How can there be a God?”.  The assumption the asker makes is that no deity would really allow so much suffering to happen seemingly indiscriminately to anyone in the world, whether they be ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but would instead ensure their faithful followers were protected from harm.

My response to this question began with the Bible and ended up tying in rather neatly with the subject matter of this blog.  I said initially that the human race had its shot at Paradise, but Adam and Eve were tempted into sin, and so we lost the right to live in a world where nothing bad would have happened.

But to a non-Christian, secular or otherwise, this needs more clarification.  How can one make an ancient Biblical legend relevant to everyone whether they believe it really happened or not?  The answer lies in something fundamental to our existence – freedom of choice.  Every one of us can choose the path we follow, and an important choice we make is that between right and wrong.  Do we hold a door open for an old lady struggling to get into her favourite shop, or do we steal her purse?  Those who follow a religion would say that choosing the latter option would mean being tempted by their Devil.  Temptation, though, exists for us all, religious or not.

The choice we make between good and evil may be ours to make, but the consequences of such a choice invariably affect more than just the one person.  If we stole that old lady’s purse, she would then be the victim of a crime, a ‘wrong’, and if she herself is a good person, then a bad thing has happened to a good person – but through the actions and choices of another, not caused by God.

The second thing which happened this week was my attending induction for a local winter night shelter.  I figured that, given I’m used to staying up all night as part of my job, there’s no reason why I can’t do the same during some of my free nights and help those less fortunate.  The volunteers don’t consist solely of Christians, by any stretch of the imagination.

Once the shelter gets under way, I imagine I will meet various types of people from different walks of society, and they will probably all have a different story behind why they are homeless.  Many if not all of them, we were informed at induction, are good people.  Bad things may have happened to these good people, but now we have a choice as a community to put that right.  The volunteers, regardless of their individual faiths or creeds, have all chosen to do something good, and if that goes some way towards helping others, then that choice is vindicated.

Religious or otherwise, we all have this choice to make.  Good or bad?  Right or wrong?  Lawful or Chaotic?  Perhaps if we made our choices with a greater awareness of how others are affected, a greater percentage of our number would make the right choice.

Thanks for listening and take care.