Good afternoon…

I got home late from a fun Bunko Night with friends, hence the time of this midday post. “I just read a research article today,” said a friend at the party. “This study found that 68% of all cancer is random, that means only 32% can be attributed to poor lifestyle choices.”

Random. Wired to crave control, predictability, clear cause and effect, most of us do not like the word “random.” Even more, we hate it’s synonyms. Erratic, chance, accidental. Unplanned, undirected, unsystematic. Arbitrary, haphazard, indiscriminate.

Our world runs on a vending machine mentality. These are some of the coins we are taught to put in our piggy bank. Eating healthy foods. Regular daily exercise. Sleeping eight hours nightly. Focusing on life’s positives. Limiting life’s negativity. Maintaining loving relationships. Feeding our faith. Finding fulfilling work. Drinking alcohol in moderation. We drop our coins regularly into life’s vending machine feeling entitled to get what we want. We make our selection and press the button, expecting to drop from life’s shoot: freedom from harm, protection from mental and physical illness, assurance of a long, happy life.

Here lies the challenge: the world is out of order. “Random” means we are not working with a trustworthy vending machine. Life offers us no guarantees. No matter how many healthy habits we add up, the ways of the world can promise no freedom, no assurance, no protection. Freedom, assurance, and protection come only from God.

God pays for each slave’s freedom; no one who runs to him loses out (Psalm 34:22, MSG).

And not only this, but [with joy] let us exult in our sufferings and rejoice in our hardships, knowing that hardship (distress, pressure, trouble) produces patient endurance; and endurance, proven character (spiritual maturity); and proven character, hope and confident assurance [of eternal salvation] (Romans 5:3-4, AMP).

God, please spread your protection over (us),
that all who love your name may be filled with joy.
For you bless the godly, O Lord;
you surround them with your shield of love (Psalm 5:11b-12, NLT).

As my mentor Jan Johnson says, “Jesus is not God’s plan of salvation. Jesus is the person of salvation.” Instead of dropping coins into the world’s disordered vending machine, growing in relationship with the person of Jesus brings us the freedom, the assurance, and the protection we all crave.

…Sue…