What If

I'd already admonished my students to arrange their make up work with me. As I sat at my desk looking at the spreadsheet for my ninth grade class, there were holes, lots of holes. Some of the grades were downright abysmal, and progress reports were going home tomorrow. I shook my head, deciding to call the parents of students missing important test grades. Maybe that would get some results.

The first few tries didn't get anyone, so I had to leave a message. Finally, a mom picked up. I explained who I was and said, "I'm calling because the test your son missed last Thursday needs to be made up." I paused expecting the standard response, "Okay, when can he arrange to do it."

That's not what she said, "My son didn't miss that test. He was at school on Thursday."

I sighed. "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but I don't have a test grade here, so he must have missed it."

She stood firm, "Nope. He was at school. You've made a mistake."

I was getting a little bit annoyed at this point, but I struggled to be kind. "Well, I don't have a test grade for him, so he'll have to make an appointment to take it outside of regular class time."

"I think you need to double check," she said. I could tell from her tone that she was getting angry herself.

"Listen," I said, " sometimes students don't tell the truth. Are you sure your son was really at school? He could have been skipping." At that point, she literally huffed into the phone. "I'll check one more time to make sure I don't have the test, but I'm pretty sure I don't. If I find it, I'll call you back," I hastily added before she could say anything.

We exchanged icy pleasantries and hung up. I stalked over to the bucket where graded student work is kept in my classroom. I only planned to check so that I could say I did it. The test just wasn't there. How dare that mother question me? 

I found the right stack, ripped off the paper clip, and started flipping through. Guess what? In the dead middle of the stack, there it was -- her son's test. I gasped. I felt dizzy. I did NOT want to call her back.

I had to. I called her and genuinely apologized not just for the mistake but also for my attitude. I told her that I'd been wrong.

Thankfully I was only mistaken about a student's test, something that was pretty easily remedied.

What happens if you're mistaken about something more important?

Last week I wrote three blogs about the problem of evil, which sparked some interesting conversation on my Facebook wall. A respected former student of mine disagrees with my view of God. He's been thinking through his own beliefs for a while, and the conclusion he's arrived at is very different from my own.

Here's a short re-cap of the things we both said.

I said that I could think of three possibilities for God:
 1. The one I outlined the the three previous blogs.
 2. That God could never have created humans at all. 
3. That God could have made humans like robots.

My  former student responded that he could think of other possibilities:
"1. God is completely uncaring about this world and intervenes in no discernible way.
2: God is not just and kind and instead is in fact a cruel being, ...

no matter how much we may wish it otherwise.
3: There isn't a God, what we describe as good and evil is merely a result of our evolutionary expectations and preference."

 

He also shared a quote I've seen before: 

"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones." (Some people attribute this quote to Marcus Aurelius.)
 

I, personally, went through my own questions about the existence of God years ago. It is a complex question, and there's no way I can fully cover my thoughts in one blog entry. I know many people who simply don't believe in God, aren't sure what to think about God, or think that God is unworthy of any of our attention. At the end of my searching, I arrived at an extremely stable conviction that God is good and worthy of our praise. I think, in fact, that he's worth dedicating your whole life to.

You might  find yourself disagreeing with me. If you are, I genuinely hope you've arrived at your conclusions after a great deal of thought. I believe we are all immortal, that our souls will live on after our bodies die, so for me, questions about God are the most serious ones we face.

I respect the logic in the quote above, and I respect the opinions of my friends. However I believe that it does matter. I'm afraid that people will dismiss God by thinking that if he is real, he won't care if they respond to him or not. For Christians like me, knowing God is at the very heart of the issue. I believe that no human effort at 'virtuousness' will ever be enough to justify anyone to God in the end. Relationship with God is required.  Jesus said, "And then I will declare to them,'I never knew you; depart from me[...] (Matt.7:23 NKJV emphasis mine).

I could be wrong about everything. For the sake of those who disagree, I hope I am.

 
If I am wrong about God, I won't have anything to regret, and if I'm right, I'll have an eternal relationship with God in Heaven. Please take some time to give God some honest thought.