Philadelphia. It is an amazing city with an
unparalleled history, richer than any other American city. Philly is a city of
firsts. It served as our nation's first capital. It opened the first public
school. It bought the first fire engine. It erected the first brick house,
printed the first almanac, created the first botanical garden, opened the first
zoo, started the first newspaper, opened the first hospital, and at least 100
other firsts. It was also the home of Charles Vansant, the first documented
shark victim on American record. It happened along the Jersey Shore in the
summer of 1916, and was the real-life inspiration for the 1975 movie
Jaws by Steven Spielberg. In a span of less than two weeks, a rogue
shark attacked 5 victims in New Jersey, four of which died from their injuries.
What makes that year so unique is that only one person since then has died from
a shark attack on the Jersey coast. Up until that summer, "experts" never even
suspected that a shark could kill a man. Today, it seems nothing unusual to hear
about a shark attack, although the chances of one dying from an attack is less
than one's chance of being killed by a falling coconut! The summer of 1916
brought a strong heat wave to the N.E., and that also resulted in many more
people venturing out into the water. Where is God at times like
these?
That is a very hard question of which I feel
nobody has an adequate answer. It is true that God performs miracles everyday.
But most of the time, He chooses not to violate the very Laws of nature that He
created. He put sharks in the water, and apparently, made them the kings of the
water. They are perfect killing machines. Despite this fact, thousands and
thousands of swimmers hit the beaches everyday, never to even be threatened by a
shark. But we know it happens. And we know it can happen at any time man and
shark mix in the shark's very habitat. Atheists use these incidences of shark
attacks and other tragedies to argue that there is no God. How could a loving
God allow such awful things to happen? I, just as you, have probably wondered
that same thing many times. Why doesn't God help us in those times? My mentor
explained to me that if God helped us all the time, so we could avoid danger,
then we would expect Him to help us no matter what situation we got
ourselves into. I have faith in God, but if I walk out in front of a car, I
still expect to be seriously injured, if not even killed. We should
have faith in God. But God also gave us a brain. Many tragedies could probably
be avoided if people used the brain He gave them. Yes, it is very good to depend
on Him completely for every single need that we have. But we should never
expect Him to help us all the time, especially when we do foolish
things that may increase our chances of being in a tragedy. We should use our
faith. But we also must use our brains and the good sense God gave all of
us.
Proverbs 15:33 says, "The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom, and
humility comes before honor."
Father, please help us to not only have faith
in You, but also help us to make the right choices in life. In Jesus name, Amen.
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