Paul's Passing Thoughts

Unless you have been vacationing on the moon lately, you are aware of the attempted assassination on former president Donald Trump while he was speaking at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Most would also be aware of the “miraculous” nature of the event, because the assassin fired eight shots at Trump, and one shot clipped his ear because he moved his head at the right nanosecond. 

Obviously, an act of God, right?

I am a bit of a problem because I have a condition that I was apparently born with: I ponder things. In this pondering process, there is a compounding of interpretive questions that I don’t seem to mind. If I can answer the questions begged by the event or mere metaphysical existence of something, and the questions about those questions, I might come to some reasonable conclusions. I like to understand things. I also like to understand the why part of facts. It’s not enough to know the what, I also want to know the why. Actually, tyranny is based on only knowing the what and not the why. Periodically throughout my life, I have been advised to not pursue conclusions about some things because it will, “bring up more questions than it will answer.” Isn’t that a good thing? I like questions. And God forbid that we would “overthink” something; oh my, that is almost a cardinal sin these days. Even unanswered questions serve to prevent things from being swept under the rug. The thing about unanswered questions follows: the longer they hang around, the greater chances they will be answered eventually. That’s why people get in trouble for giving birth to questions. Yes, I might suffer from critical thinking syndrome (CTS) and becoming a nurse hasn’t helped the condition; in fact, it has made it much worse.

Hence, the whole notion that God intervened in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump brings up some questions in my mind because it’s what I do. You see, I have these notions about God; one, that he is very good at what he does, and for the most part, values life equally. Also, in regard to any event, if God wanted to make a particular point that he is accused of making, why would he choose to do it that way?

Since this is a complex subject, let’s start with something simple, let’s set the table with the subject of professional football. Professional football players who wear their faith in God on their sleeve are often universally applauded for “giving all the glory to God.” When they make a touchdown, they often get on their knees and point to the sky indicating that God was directly responsible for the success of the play. This brings up several interpretive questions. So, God is directly involved in football plays? Really? Why? Is he a football fan? And if he is, do we know who his favorite team is, and why? Does he also like golf? Is football the only sport he likes? And, if he is helping his favorite team, is that fair to the other teams? And if he is directly involved with the plays of his favorite team, and remembering that God is really, really good at what he does, why is his favorite team not winning the Superbowl every year? It shouldn’t take long to ponder these questions because the whole notion that God is directly involved in the NFL is entirely stupid.

No doubt, looking at the circumstances of the Trump assassination attempt, initially, it is very tempting to believe in a divine intervention, until you start pondering the big picture. Yes, if you focus on the ear alone, that seems to demand a miraculous conclusion. But what about the guy at the rally who didn’t turn his head at just the right moment and died? What about the other two rally attenders who were critically wounded? Why would God spare Trump and not the other three people? Is Trump more important or valued more than the other three people? Since God is really good at what he does, if no one at the rally was hit by any of the bullets, wouldn’t that be a more impressive miracle? More than likely, God didn’t intervene, it was what we call, “dumb luck.”

Dumb luck happens all the time. When I was a young man managing a car audio installation shop in Dallas Texas, we shared a parking lot with an auto repair shop. On the same day, their customer, and our customer, dropped off their identical Honda Accords. Same year, same color, same model. Also, the keys to each car were identical. My technician, unfortunately, picked the wrong Accord and the right key worked. The wrong Accord received a really nice car stereo installation that involved custom modification and very expensive audio equipment. Long story short, removing the equipment and reinstalling the factory radio equipment, plus repairs, would have far exceeded the cost of the new equipment and installation. The owner of the wrong Accord got a free top-of-the line, state of the art stereo system. Did God want him to get the system for free? Why? And obviously, the guy didn’t arrive that day to get a car stereo, but did God intervene for purposes of the man obtaining a greater appreciation of high quality music? Did God, therefore, superintend the duplication of the key at the factory and everything else that happened that day? And in the process of blessing the customer who received the free car stereo, did he also want to punish two different businesses? No, all of that is very doubtful; it was dumb luck…for the guy that got the stereo. Dumb luck happens.

I think we need to be careful. An effort to “give God all of the glory” can sometimes, if not most of the time, attribute things to God that bring his character into question. With that being said, some dumb luck happenings can draw us closer to God, and I would imagine God is just fine with that, but it doesn’t mean he superintended the dumb luck. In God’s reality, there are lots of moving parts and therefore, plenty of opportunity for dumb luck. However, sometimes God does intervene. In the Bible, when the Roman soldiers, Temple guards, and a high priest came to arrest Jesus, Peter attempted to cut the high priest’s head in half with a downward stroke of his sword. Like Trump, the priest moved his head at the right moment and the stroke cut the priest’s ear off. Dumb luck for the priest. It is also obvious that Christ didn’t want Peter to cut the priest’s head in half, and the attempt was going to mess up God’s overall plan, so Christ intervened and reattached the priest’s ear on the spot, like new, because God is very good at what he does. Most of what happens in God’s reality is driven by freewill with interventions by God to keep things going towards the ending God has preordained.

Let’s not forget the big picture. Every individual God creates is a miracle. Creation is a miracle. God doesn’t need to superintend the action of every moving part of creation because the machine itself is a miracle. Man is totally responsible for how he manages the sum and substance of the abilities given to us by God. Because of mortality, weakness, and evil, the best of us will do stupid things, and we shouldn’t add to the stupidity by giving God credit for things that bring his character into question when the logical conclusions are considered. God didn’t choose to save Trump while allowing one other person to die and two others to be seriously wounded. It was dumb luck. With that said in regard to Trump and what could have been the results…

…thank God for dumb luck.

paul