Acts and Consequences

"There is always a reason. Whenever anything has been mucked up, whenever anything outrageous happens, there is a reason for it. You still have a mucked up outrageous situation on your hands, however, and explaining it does not alleviate it one bit. If someone does something really rotten, there is a reason for it. Learn it if you care, and you know why he is a son-of-a-bitch. The fact is, the thing remains, though...It changes nothing to run a post-humous psychoanalysis. Acts and their consequences are the things by which our fellows judge us. Anything else and all that you get is a cheap feeling of moral superiority by thinking how you would have done something nicer if it had been you. So as for the rest, leave it to heaven. I'm not qualified.”

Corwin, The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles: The Hand of Oberon, p479

"You'll never see the moments coming that will forever mutilate your soul--at least not until after they've mowed you down."

Savitar, Acheron p469

There have been many things over the years that I have tried to figure out and I just can't. I've recently come to the conclusion that it just doesn't matter. The why of things just doesn't matter. Once something is done, it's done. The fact remains and that is the part you have to deal with. The why (if you can find it out) is not actually important in the real world. Sometimes I've been so caught up in trying to figure out the "why" of things that I've not really done anything. In fact, I've sometimes gotten to the point of not even being able to figure out what to do because I'm so busy trying to figure out the why of things.

I'm getting to the point of not caring why people do what they do. People do what they do because they do what they do. That is enough. What is important is how I respond. I am responsible only for my responses to things that happen, not for knowing why they happen. I asked God years ago what He wants to me and I remembered that what needs doing has nothing to do with trying to figure out the "why" of things. WHY is just a distraction, a self-indulgent pass-time and does nothing to actually get anything done. God has a specific task for me and for every other Christian in the world.

He wants me to become a saint, just like He wants all of His children to become saints. He's laid out how to do that in the Bible and in the writings of the saints. It's a five part formula. It's component parts are:

Remember God. Say my prayers. Go to church. Forgive my brother. Obey the commandments.

Fr Thomas Hopko, presiding priest of  Monastery of the Transfiguration

When I do that and learn to do it consistently, in spite of what is going on around me, then I will know what else He wants of me. His "good, acceptable and perfect will" for me. And what do I do after I do that? Yeah, that's simple: Remember God. Say my prayers. Go to church. Forgive my brother. Obey the commandments.

But just because it's simple doesn't make it EASY, you know?

Lord have mercy on me a sinner.

Relevant Reading
The Hardest Part
The Bait and Switch of Contemporary Christianity