Monday, March 10, 2008

Three Laws

After living a few years and pondering on this universe we find ourselves immersed in, I've decided there are three great laws at work here and much of what we're about is learning to deal with these.

The first Law is the Law of Chance. Stuff happens. Much of it is beyond our control. Earthquakes shake, accidents occur, and you or your loved one just happens to be on the wrong street corner the morning someone with a 45 cal. weapon goes postal. It's awful. It forces us to realize how far we are from being in control. The bible says somewhere that "time and circumstance happens to everyone" (I'll find this and post it later)...

The second Law is the Law of Consequence. We actually do have some small control in some areas of life. Pretty much this is limited to that realm we each occupy called "the self." That's were my little kingdom pretty much begins and ends - yours too. So, because I do have authority over how I think, what I do, when and how I do it, I also have to be responsible for the outcomes. The Consequences. If I do a crappy job of building my house, it'll probably fall down sooner rather than later. If I treat people around me poorly, I'll probably have fewer and fewer people around me - or vice versa. The choice is mine.

The third Law is the Law of Love. This is the over-riding, and most powerful law. It always trumps the first two. It's the law that allows us to live in a world of happenstance and not go nuts worrying about it - and recovering and growing even when "bad things happen." This is the law that provides for God's grace towards me and you, and likewise our grace towards one another. It's the law that releases us from the tyranny of an eye-for-an-eye justice that leaves the whole world blind. It's the only hope ultimately that the human race has for any kind of future that we'd actually want to live in. It is the law that Jesus came to make more evident, although like the other two laws, it has always been in effect.

Or so I believe.

4 comments:

London Mabel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
London Mabel said...

I like this leetle post.

(I had to repost this comment because last time I wrote ost.)

gmc said...

Thanks. I'll find that time and circumstance quote soon. I could also illustrate the law of consequences in scripture with say the one about "sew the wind and reap the whirlwind..."

And of course the law of love: "John 3:16-17" (I wish people would realize that verse 17 is an integral part of that quote!)

London Mabel said...

Ecclesiastes 9:11-12

I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all (Ecclesiastes 9:11).