March 2012 Edition

As of today the MegaMillions Lottery jackpot stands at over five hundred million dollars. People all over the country are standing in line, dreaming of riches beyond imagination.  They are asked what would they do with the approximately two hundred seventy million dollars they would take home after federal taxes. Some say that they would buy a new house, a new car, pay off their debt, quit their jobs and travel. Others say they would keep on working, that the money would not change them. Right!  Their odds of winning the lottery are…one in one hundred seventy six million!  Still they say, "Someone's going to' win, why not me?" You are wagering one dollar to win two hundred seventy million dollars. Great return on investment, Right?

I have a better wager, well, not me exactly. There is a person that proposed a wager about four hundred years ago. His name is Blaise Pascal, the seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist.  He proposed this wager:
A Wager on the Existence of God
1."God is, or He is not"
 2. A Game is being played... where heads or tails will turn up.
 3. According to reason, you can defend neither of the propositions.
 4. You must wager. (It is not optional.)
 5. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us
     estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.
 6. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.

Pascal's argument seems best captured by presenting the following decision matrix:

Wager for God:
Right: Gain all - Eternal Life in God's Presence
Wrong: Status quo

Wager against God:
Wrong: Misery - Eternal Separation from God's Presence
Right: Status quo Pascal's wager says the best wager is to live as though God exists.


I dare say most of us honestly believe God exists.  However, here is the important question for us:
Am I living as though God exists?  Am I really, honestly? If we say He exists, the next question is, "So what?" What real impact does that have on my life? How am I to respond? Another set of questions arise. "O.K., He exists, how does that affect my everyday life?" "Does He really concern Himself with me, personally?" "Does what I do in my life really matter to God?" "How then should I live? Those of us raised in the "Bible Belt" or raised in Christian homes know the answers to these questions intellectually. Be good, go to church, say your prayers, tithe, and help the poor. All of these are good things, for sure.

Here is the real question we need to ask ourselves:

Where is my heart? In the deepest part of me, what do I really believe?  What do I really desire?  What do I value most in my life? I can publicly give the right answers; but, when I lay in bed at night, alone with my thoughts, am I brave enough to examine my heart of hearts to see where God really fits into my life? Is He real to me or is He an "app" I go to occasionally for information or is He a celestial "rescue disk" to restore me to a spiritual condition?  Is He a "technical support representative" to tell me what I did wrong and show me how to fix my error?
Or...Is He my "raison d'etre", my reason for being, my reason for living.
Is God the guiding force in my daily life and decision-making?
Are any of us brave enough to answer that question?