Cars, Driving, and the Provision of God

Cars are dangerous, high-maintenance, expensive, and at times annoying (well, at least every car I have owned has been the last three and whenever I'm driving the first one is true).  But yet we all own them and use them daily.  I've been reminded of frailty of our inventions and the provision of my God from a recent trip [honeymoon] to Tennessee with my beautiful bride.

Experience #1

There's only one way to say this: We didn't trust either of our cars to take us to Tennessee and back.  So, we asked my parents and they were gracious enough to allow us to take their 2001 Chevy Malibu instead.  Our suspicions were confirmed when, on Saturday while driving home, my mom informed us that she "was afraid she broke my car".  In reality, my car broke itself.....I believe it is masochistic.

I thank God, though, that He gave us (well, mostly my wife) the wisdom to not take my car all the way to Tennessee but instead to ask if we could use someone else's.  And also that I have such loving parents who were willing to allow us to use their car even though it meant they needed to drive mine for a week.

Experience #2

We stopped at a Bed & Breakfast in Virginia on our way to Tennessee on Sunday, November 13.  This was very wise, it was a beautiful place for a fairly low price, and all-in-all a great way to start our honeymoon.  Obviously, this was Dana's idea.  However, when it came to planning our trip home she let me make the decision, so we drove the whole way from Tennessee to Pennsylvania on Saturday, November 19.  Economical? Yes.  Fun?  Not really.....

In any case, my decision to drive the whole day Saturday did lead to some interesting experiences, one which relates to the overall theme of this post (yes, there is a point to my ramblings).  We were driving up I-81 going around 70-80 mph (the speed limit is 70 at places!) and all of a sudden a car about 100' in front of us just started to spin.  It looked like he was on black ice - he pulled more than a 360, at one point actually in our lane facing us.  Amazingly (God's providence?) he did not hit anyone and we were able to make it around him safely.  I stopped (mostly because Dana said "You can't drive away, you just witnessed an accident") and went back to make sure he was ok.  The man in the car was completely unharmed, although very shaken up, and had no idea why his car had suddenly started spinning while he was driving around 80 mph down the highway.

 Isn't it amazing that we rely on such frail yet complex machines for our everyday needs?  So often we use our cars without thinking about it, but these two experiences reminded me of how much trust we put in our cars (and other's) each and every day.
In the same thought, though, these two experiences reminded me of how much we rely on God's provision and mercy each and every day.  If sin was allowed to run its full course in this world I would be dead.  If God were to leave us to ourselves we would rip each other and ourselves apart, much as my car seems to rip itself apart from time to time, however God, who is rich in mercy, out of love reaches into this world that He created and orders things according to His glorious plan of redemption.

And so I have been reminded once again not to merely rely on the inventions of man or even on my own ability to think, work, or drive but rather to rely upon the strength, grace, love, and mercy of God.  I will continue to drive our cars, and they will continue to be unreliable machines that eventually need to be replaced, but I will put my trust and my hope in the One who orders the universe and knows when each part will break and how it will affect my life and others.

Merciful Justice - Aren't these contradictory terms??

So, this is following the post from a few days ago...more struggles with who God is based on the knowledge that He will send people to Hell.  Think about that for a moment.  What does it tell you about God that He would create people with the intention of sending them to Hell?  Most Christians dismiss these questions/thoughts as unimportant, but this is your God!  If we claim that we desire to grow in a knowledge of God (which if you are a Christian you should desire this) and you claim to love God (which as a Christian you should claim this) then how can you dismiss this as unimportant!?

So, how is it that God can create people with the INTENTION of sending them to Hell?  Wow...

So I recently read through Lamentations.  Amazing book, by the way, never realized it, but it's an amazing book.  The city of Jerusalem is being destroyed, an enemy is camped outside cutting off food supplies.  Women are eating their children in the streets.  People are dieing every day.  Destruction is rampant.  And this author (seems to be a leader of some sort in the city) is crying out to God.  Now there are a million different directions to go with all of this, because in the past week my mind has gone a million different directions.  I've learned so much more what God's mercy is by reading this book.  At one  point the author says "because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed.  His compassions never fail"  And I realized something.  This man is looking around at complete destruction, but he realizes, we deserve much worse.  God should just destroy us right now.  But He hasn't, which is mercy, not giving the bad that someone deserves.  Grace is giving someone good that they do not deserve and mercy is withholding the bad that someone does deserve.

But this led me to a dilemma.  How can God be both merciful and just?  If justice is repaying someone according to what they deserve and mercy is withholding the bad from someone that they rightfully deserve???anyone else seeing my dilemma here?

Now, I have thought since of some answers to this problem, but for my purposes today I will leave you with this question.  Feel free to comment any thoughts that you have.