THE PLAYWRIGHT

It is not so much that I mind what people want to believe in, but when they do not want to discuss why they believe what they do, it sometimes is a bit frustrating. I remember a time, a few years back, just after being asked to resign my position by the Director of Mission to Unreached Peoples. I had crossed a line that put me on the outside of the perimeters of their Statement of Faith and, as I had promised him when he hired me, I handed him my resignation because I had, once again, become a pain in the butt to some of the other more qualified missionaries on the field. The following day he wanted to visit my project at Wat Opot to check on another member of the MUPS team, and so I invited him to come out with me on the bus.

We didn’t talk much on the two hour ride out in the backseat of the bus… not that I didn’t want to, but because whenever I would ask him a specific question about what he believed in, his answer was always, “I don’t know, I guess I never really thought about it.”  That seemed strange to me at the time, but I finally stopped asking questions and ended our relationship in silence.

Perhaps however, he was not lying after all… for I have known others, since that time, who have said they are believers… but when asked to explain why, they don’t have a clue as to how to answer. When pressed, they finally admit that they believe what they believe because they heard it from someone they trusted, but had never really thought about it on their own. Imagine that… living your whole life on the words of someone else without asking yourself if there is any validity to what you are being told.

There are many points in all religions that don’t make a whole lot of sense to me but one in particular has bothered me for a long-long time and, in fact, I was kicked out of Mr. Timer’s Sunday school class nearly 55 years ago for asking, “How could God know all things before they happen?”

For that to be true, God would have had to write the screenplay of Life in advance and then create a cast of bit actors (that would be you and me) to play the different roles. We are not told anything about the plot or the ending of the play, only given our daily script to act out… and for the play to be successful, none of us can ad-lib our parts, because that just might ruin the ending. Does that sound realistic to anyone? Are we all just bit actors in God’s play and when our part is not needed anymore, we just fade away (go to Heaven) like actors on General Hospital did?

Of course, given the state of our World today, it would be nice to believe that God did write the script and has prepared a happy ending for it… like maybe a Rapture of all the good guys followed by a Grand Finale, with heavily armed Angels rounding up all the bad guys and throwing them into a Lake of Fire. Great idea for a Mel Gibson movie… and in the end, while the Titles are scrolling across the screen, the audience of Heavenly Host and raptured bit actors would be shown giving a standing ovation to God, the Playwright and Creator of the entire cast and setting…   of course, if God didn't write the script and we are not just bit actors in his play, but real live people ad-libing day to day on this planet Earth… who but ourselves could we hold responsible for the condition of our Life and of our World?