More Unintended Consequences

Clearly the consequences of our actions is not always foreseeable:
– Sometimes harmless pranks go horribly wrong
– Oversights have lead to industrial accidents
– Forgotten oil plugs destroy car engines

On a more personal level, sometimes…
– Friendly banter is misunderstood as flirting
– Couples breakup when they want nothing but
– Partyers having fun get alcohol poisoning
– People try meth and become addicts
– Teens have sex and become unintended parents
– Parents try to build a relationship with their kids and it seems to backfire

Even More Unintended Consequences

Unintended Consequences

The German weekly Der Spiegel has a report about the unintended consequences of child labor laws in one Pakistani city known for producing soccer balls.

Apparently children were frequently employed in the factories, until child labor “advocates” in the West forced companies like Nike and Adidas to ensure that their suppliers weren’t employing children. But what happened to the kids? Surely after they were freed from their toiling in the factories they went to school and now have well-paying office jobs, right?

People do what they do because somehow, some way, their hopelessness craves for hope.

Someone bombed the Boston Marathon Monday. Someone, somehow found some level of hope in creating horror for someone else.

That grain of truth is what they grasp onto and that allows them to justify their choices.

“None of us,” wrote Christopher Wright, ” needs to be scratched very deep to uncover the darker depths of our worst desires and the evil action any of us is capable of, if pushed.” Moreover, while we are not the overt cause of others’ suffering we cannot escape it’s consequences. 1

As he hung on the cross Jesus Christ quoted Psalm 22: Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

God asked God, “Where are you God?”

As we watch the news, view the video footage, listen to the radio hosts rant, discuss the events with others and ask our questions of God, it’s important to remember we are NOT alone. Pain and painful events make us ask the hard questions when life goes very, very wrong.

It’s been a busier than normal week.  As I’ve waged war with my schedule I have thought quite a bit about this insightful quote by John Powell.

“All of us are willing to admit pangs of hunger and feelings of emptiness inside us.  We experience half-formed dreams and vague drives for something more than human resources can promise or produce.  There is in each of us a dynamic, a mystique or drive that, unless detoured by humans selfishness, leads to search for God, whether we know it or not.“

I am searching for God.  Today and every day I’m praying, “Please God help me…”

When I was thirteen I was held underwater by a gym-class bullies.  As much as I struggled and fought to break free I couldn’t.  I wrote about my experience with the fear of drowning here. 

It’s been more than twenty-five years since that day, and yet, even in the beauty of Hawaii last week I was afraid of drowning.  Fear runs deep in many of us.  Maybe your not afraid of drowning in water, maybe your fear is drowning in:
– Debt
– Despair
– Disappointment
– Failure
– The Ocean of Bad Relationships
– The Sea of Doubt
– Your Fears About Your Uncertain Future