Looking for life beyond the edge.

My title reminds me of the infamous scene in the Charles M. Schultz “Peanuts” cartoon where Lucy is often setting at her booth advertising psychiatric help for the low price of $0.04. Stating that the Doctor is – IN. Well, the doctor isn’t IN but I’m here to talk to you about the REAL Consultant who is ALWAYS – IN.

I recently read an article entitled “Is God an IT Consultant?“. I thought nothing of the title at first as I quickly scanned the blog article. As I began to read I stopped and began to read in more detail. Something struck a string in my heart and I felt that I couldn’t pass this article by without posting something as a “reaction” on my own blog.

I have no shame in the fact that I am a Christian, most specifically Protestant and Nazarene. I read the blog post in full detail tonight watching the author take God and paint this picture of your typical IT Consultant; arrogant, self righteous, pompous and idiotic.

First off he takes intelligent design and proposes a question about “famine, disease and war” being intelligent. I offer the fact that we live in what I call a “fallen world”. Due to the fact that God designed us to have “free will” and the ability to sin, we have created the world we live in. It is not God who “intelligently ordains” these results of sin, it is God who created us with free will to let us CHOOSE how our life is. Otherwise, I believe that we’d all just be puppets if there was no choices in life.

Next he proposes questioning God on why so many things in creation are “utterly messed up” (we’ll clean up the language here). He believes that the response would be along the lines of, “Well, it was designed according to the spec. Technically, there’s nothing wrong with my design, it’s your implementation that’s the problem.”

I’m not sure what God you know, but the God I know wouldn’t say this. There are two ways to look at this, both being valid. First is that again, we live in a fallen world. This world isn’t perfect and that is due to God creating us with free will. This free will design has resulted in our world being corrupt and thus the results are these “messed up” pieces of creation. Secondly, sometimes the bad isn’t always the bad. If we’re going to the temporary sufferings in life such as unemployment, sickness, hurting, etc… then we need to stop asking God to take our “chains” away from us and we need to start asking God to use our “chains” for His glory.

Many hate the saying that “everything happens for a reason”… I think that this should in fact be the title of my life story. Everything that has happened to me good and BAD has been for a reason and has made me a better person out of it. So these elements of creation that one thinks is “messed up” maybe should take in considering that it wasn’t the Creator who did it but those He created.

He goes on to say,

“Everything good = god. Everything bad = satan and the wickedness of man. Which always struck me as a bit of a cop out. Fluffy bunnies, cute babies and beautiful sunsets are because god loves you. Horrible things like disease, genocide and really bad TV shows happen because you’re wicked and you deserve it.”

Woah… hold the phone. God doesn’t sit up in Heaven and says, “because you sin today and you’re wicked I’m going to give you a disease.” I think that we need to realize that if this was the case, every “bad person” would probably be dead. Look at good people who have problems (and we know that everyone has problems) is that it’s not because someone is Good or Bad it is because that is what God has planned for your life. It is all in how you look at this picture. Everything = GOD. End of story. Yes, the good and the bad… I am not saying that God is the author of sin or wickedness but He controls it all and for both I give Him praise. Yes, even in the bad times, I give Him praise.

Following this Mr. Angry follows this up with a few paragraphs talking about “concept of divinity”, eternal damnation and God’s involvement in life. Again, I will use my life as an example. I know that God cares for me and He cares about everything in my life. E V E R Y T H I N G. I’m a firm believer that God wants to hear it all, and if you get to know God before creating this cold concept of Him, I think many would see it too.

Yes, eternal damnation, what every good “fire and brimstone” preacher can preach on. I personally am not one to speak on Heaven and Hell because I don’t believe in “scaring people into Heaven”. I’m here to tell you that Hell is real. This goes back to an earlier point of mine, FREE WILL. God says look, “You can follow me or you can choose not to. Here are your options, Heaven or Hell.” Also, please, what is so wrong with living a “Godly” life. I once heard the phrase,

“I’d rather live like there is a God to die and find out there isn’t than to live like there is no God and die to find out there is.”

It’s not like God is creating people and saying, “You, John, are going to Heaven… You, next person in line, I think you need to go to Hell.” When we were all created we were given the power to choose, down to our eternal destination.

The last paragraph is a funny pun on God being an IT Consultant and I’ll quote it here as well,

“And if god really is an IT consultant, we should have read the fine print in the contract. Because there are a hell of a lot of bugs that still need fixing. Does anyone know the number of the help desk? I tried calling the pope but he called me a smartarse and hung up.”

My response to that is this:
Need a copy of the contract with no fine print, it is called the Holy Bible. Here you can read the “help desk” agreement at Book: John Section: 3 Passage Number:16 and if you need to file a bug or comment on a feature of this life, just lift your words to God, The REAL Consultant, His “help desk” is always listening. Depending on what is in your individual project plan will result in such “bugs” and “comments” being addressed at the time the REAL consultant sees fit.

I hope that you, Mr. Angry, if you ever read this entry will maybe consider finding the REAL Consultant and not this “IT Consultant” idea that you’ve painted of God.

Oh and also keep in mind that we’re only “beta testing” here on this earth… final release will be completed after your tenure of beta testing is through and you’ve passed onto “production”.

Good Night and God Bless,
- J -