Skin in the Game

Fate is the idea of forces beyond our control shaping our world and lives. It is a nameless, faceless monster eating up our days with a voiceless dominance. Fate is a cruel taskmaster leaving us impotent and numb. It threatens to castrate us from any contribution to the story of life. It is a doctrine that the child of God should reject. Shakespeare, in Henry the V, places on the lips of the soldier Pistol these words concerning fate, it is “giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel.” Merriam Webster defines fatalism as a belief wherein events are fixed in advance so that human beings are powerless to change them. The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy explains, “Though the word ‘fatalism’ is commonly used to refer to an attitude of resignation in the face of some future event or events which are thought to be inevitable, philosophers usually use the word to refer to the view that we are powerless to do anything other than what we actually do.” Reformed thinking is theological fatalism.

In the days we are living in it is easy to fall into the trap of fatalism. The belief that our lives are driven by fate alone leads to a stoic mentality. The idea that we are somehow cast upon the sea of life as a jellyfish, subservient to tide and wave is a deadly philosophy. Let us all eat our tuna fish and watch our Jeopardy as the world plunges over the cliff. The book of Revelation has been written and the events will no doubt take place. So, what is the use?

In a book titled, Heaven’s Stage on 5th and Main, the author writes this, “I am aware that preceding on this far-reaching and daring presupposition, that the Playwright is sovereign over the affairs of men, presents certain problems. If life is anything, it is a discombobulated mess, filled with unforeseen fellow actors, grumpy stagehands, and scene changes that we did not see coming. We would prefer to do without these twisting, unwanted plotlines. Our own failures and faults blur the concept of an orchestrated life with certain inevitable ends. These undeniable facts cause the ground upon which our belief stands to get slippery right out of the gate. To consent that the Director is supreme over all human activity is to enter a muddle of mysteries leading to a maze of endless questions, but regardless, I ask you to consider the possibility of such a majestic thought. The backside of any tapestry is a clutter of loose threads and blurred colors, and yet, once we turn it around, we see the picture that the weaver was working on all along. A potter begins with a lump of clay. There is order in the chaos when we understand that only a heavenly Director could pen a story which is both scripted and unscripted. He has written a rigidly fluid play.”

The Apostle Paul reminded us, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” We are not jellyfish floating in the oceans of these end times. We are warriors in the Kingdom of God battling the world, the flesh, and the devil with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Enter the fight.