Is the world out of control?

We live in a world of unpredictable events. One in which things don’t always go according to plan.

When James Harrison’s wife walked out on him after an argument at their trailer park home in Washington state, how could she have known that a few hours later he would shoot their five children, before turning the gun on himself?

When North Korea launched their rocket on Sunday, it became apparent to the international community that their warnings hadn’t been heeded as they’d hoped and planned.

And we may yet discover that the launch itself didn’t go quite as planned.When the Bond Super Puma helicopter left BP’s Miller oilfield last Wednesday, the 16 people on board could never have known that it was a journey they wouldn’t survive. And nor, of course, could their families and friends.

Who could have predicted that Gavin and Stacey star, Matthew Horne, would collapse on stage last week?

Who could have foreseen that Lewis Hamilton would end up being disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix?

And how could Madonna have known that when she flew out of Malawi on Sunday, her plans to adopt a second child from that country would be hanging in the balance?

Have faith
There is no getting away from the fact that much of the time we experience life as a seemingly random series of events, over which neither we, nor anyone else has any control. There are those for whom this perceived randomness is an insurmountable barrier to faith.

At times we might wonder if we shouldn’t count ourselves among them.

Reading John 18 and 19, however, we find ourselves summoned afresh to faith. Narrating the events of Easter from Gethsemane to Golgotha to the grave, John repeatedly reassures us that everything that happened to Jesus was in accordance with God’s plan and purpose. And Jesus knew it.

God is in control! If we seek him in the events of our day, we will surely find him. Just as Jesus found him even in the agonies of Easter.

Nigel Hopper