You have heard the illustration about a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the earth and creating a storm on the earth’s opposite side. The illustration highlights the interconnectedness of life. It is based on the principle of cause and effect.
Some argue there is a universal law of cause and effect. They say every effect has a definite cause and every cause has a definite effect. Sounds logical doesn’t it? This argument continues by saying there is no such thing as chance or luck. Every outcome is the result of one’s own actions.
The foundation of the Buddhist religion is the law of cause and effect. That religion holds, “Good deeds bring good results. Bad deeds bring bad results. Your own deeds bring your own results.” It is a religion based on determinism. One gets what one deserves whether it be good or ill.
Recently some Christian voices have attempted to explain the devastation of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma using cause and effect. One popular radio preacher recently said the Houston area suffered from Hurricane Harvey because the city had not repented of its support for homosexuality and its persecution of preachers, an apparent reference to a lawsuit where the former mayor of Houston attempted to confiscate sermon notes from some pastors who had opposed a city ordinance protecting homosexuals.
He also described Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy as God’s hand of punishment against sinful cities.
Cause and effect
This kind of reasoning draws a direct line between actions and results. In that way it is like Buddhism, teaching “your own deeds bring your own results.”
Obviously, God does bring punishment for sin. The Old Testament story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah illustrates that fact. But the line of cause and effect is not always so clearly evident.
Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount offers a different understanding of life. In Matthew 5:45, Jesus said God “causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Bad things happen to good people
For Jesus there is not a direct line between good and the blessings of God or between evil and God’s punishment. Life can be haphazard. Bad things can happen to good people and the wicked can appear to prosper.
Again both the righteous and the unrighteous receive God’s rain. Both the good and the evil benefit from the rays of God’s sun.
Believing in a world of cause and effect provides a sense of control. We are masters of our own fates if we live in a world of cause and effect. We have the power to control our circumstances, to change our futures. Believing in cause and effect helps make sense out of a confusing world and bewildering circumstances.
Someone has observed that human beings would rather feel guilty than feel powerless. If we feel guilty or feel like we are bad people then we deserve all the bad that happens, but we are still in control and still live in a cause and effect universe.
Being powerless means we are not in control and that can be frightening.
In light of Jesus’ words perhaps the focus should change from why something happened or who is to blame for the unfortunate circumstances in which we find ourselves. Perhaps the focus should be more about our response to the world in which we live.
In Psalm 56:4, the psalmist asked, “What can mortal man do to me?” His answer was that man could do nothing because the psalmist confessed that his trust was in God.
In Psalm 23:4 a similar thought is described. There the psalmist says “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil.” The reason? “For You are with me.”
There is something about companionship that makes life more bearable.
Years ago a study attempted to determine the amount of pain a person could stand by having volunteers place their feet in buckets of ice water. To everyone’s surprise when someone was with the volunteer, the feet stayed in the ice water about twice as long as when the volunteer was alone.
It is a fact of life that companionship makes pain a little less painful, misfortune a little less oppressive. That is why the physical presence of a Christian friend conveys such a positive message in times of trouble, even if a word is never spoken.
God’s presence
The psalmist rejected the idea of cause and effect. In both Psalm 23 and Psalm 56, God was not doing something to the writer because of some failure or wrongdoing on the part of the psalmist. God was not against him for some past action. Rather God was with the psalmist in the midst of the circumstances, in the midst of the pain. God was on the psalmist’s side and God’s presence was enough.
Because God was with him, the psalmist could handle whatever came his way. So can we, just as Philippians 4:13 says — “I can do all things through Christ who strengths me.”
The parent’s presence comforts the child who cries out in the darkness of night and God’s presence comforts us, His children, when we cry out in the midst of turmoil and confusion whatever their cause.
God may not make the problems disappear. He may not eliminate the evil we face. But God is with us and that is enough. That is exactly what Jesus promised when He said, “And I am with you always, even unto the ends of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
So when hurricanes enter our lives — literal hurricanes like Harvey and Irma or figurative ones — the challenge is not to determine what we did wrong. The challenge is to recognize God’s presence through His Spirit and through His people and go on living because God is with us.
Share with others: