by Dan Davis – Director of Maintanence/Valpo FUMC
What exactly do you believe when it comes to God? Is it the simplistic understanding of His commandments? Is it the complex understanding of the walk of Christ? Or perhaps it’s somewhere in between? Do you believe that everything happens for a reason, and is that reason according to divine creation? Is it perturbing to think that God has already ordained all things that have happened, as well as all things yet to come, or do you prefer to think that we have some say so in the matter?
Case in point; the 12 disciples all came together at the same time, in the same place, and the results of their gathering changed the world in amazing ways. Did God put this together? It would certainly be easy to believe that.
However, another example of a dozen people coming together all at the same time, and in the same place, took place in 1893. They all changed the world in dramatic ways as well. J.P. Morgan, Susan B. Anthony, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Samuel Clements, George Westinghouse, Gale Ferris, Alexander Graham Bell, Helen Keller, Sigmund Freud, and Theodore Roosevelt all attended the same entertainment event at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. All twelve of them intermingled, collaborated, invented, advocated, taught, and shared together in some capacity, for the greater good of our world. Just by reading the names, you know the world was changed by these people. On a side note, the entertainer they all saw was the unknown son of a Jewish Rabbi named Erik Weisz. We know him today as Harry Houdini. So, was this gathering merely a coincidence, or was it God that had a hand in it?
Well, that answer would be determined entirely by your faith. Personally, I have faith in that just like the disciples, God most certainly had a hand in this gathering as well. In my opinion, such a faith should not perturb people, it should comfort them.
DD
Valpo FUMC Lent 2018 Blog 
I think with the whole free will thing that we would have some ability to make decisions. It’s difficult to fathom being able to know what will happen given infinite possibilities. I would never be perturbed with the idea you put forth. I’d be more curious as to how people have interpreted that notion. Food for thought though.
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