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"Wait,wait....you believe in God because your grandpa sent you a piano? It was all just a coincidence! I used to be very close to God. But time and time again, the love that I poured onto other people was twisted, and mutilated, then thrown back in my face. Family, friends, girlfriends, they all trampled my love. Now if God really exists, and what's more, if he actually CARES about me, then I want to see him help me. And he should know what I need without my having to pray for it." I did not say I believe in God because mom got a Weber piano a couple of days after Grandpa Weber died. I said it led me back to God; it started me thinking again. In the letter that follows this account on the website, I explain some of the thinking I did, which is a rational indication of His existence. But of course there is very little of this nature that cannot be explained by coincidence. I am well aware of that. I am trained in mathematics, and I know that there is a discrete probability of everything. There is even a real possibility that all the molecules of air in the room that you are now in will go in one direction and collect in one corner of the room, leaving you to suffocate in your chair. But we are used to ignoring small possibilities like this. To pay attention to them all would make life unlivable. Scientists routinely call events such as lab tests "certain" and "proved" if they can be shown to be 90% or 95% probable. But if someone does not really want to believe something, they can hold out for 100%, which is not even possible, and thereby excuse themselves from having to believe at all. You want to see him help you? You’ve been hurt by other people? Wanting good relationships is no different from wanting a piano to help feed your family. They are both things of this world. Yet you say you will believe again if God gives you what you want? You must see the inconsistency there. The fact is, my mom should not have expected a piano because of Grandpa’s prayers, or because of her own. You are right; God knows what we need without our having to ask for it. He just likes to hear from us, and our prayers for reasonable needs are our way of telling Him that we believe in Him. Will He give us what we pray for? For a full discussion of this, see our page at Does Prayer Work? The short answer is: only if it is something that He has already determined that we need for our salvation. (Or else a lot of very religious people would be very rich, there would be no sickness or wars, etc.) Maybe He sent the piano for my salvation. Maybe He sent it to help all the thousands of people who read our website. Maybe He even sent it just for you. This is a far more plausible explanation of why He might do it than just so Mom could better teach. This is a world of free will and random chance, and we all have to live within the circumstances of our lives. Even Christ cried out to have His pain lessened, but He too had to fulfill His destiny. We have to use our gifts of intelligence and physical strength to obtain for ourselves the worldly things we want. You and you alone have to make the necessary changes in your life to merit good relationships. But sometimes there may be an overlap of what is good for salvation and what will help us in this life. Possibly the piano incident is an example of this. And remember, we do not know and cannot know which events in our lives, even terrible ones, might be the best path to our salvation.  | Letter 1 | Hay un Dios | | Return Home | The Meaning of Life | Is There a God? | Prayer | Teachings of Christ | Don Camillo Stories | Our Catholic Faith | Links | |
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