“God,” said Pascal, “instituted prayer in order to lend His creatures the dignity of causality.” But not only prayer; whenever we act at all He lends us that dignity. 
(C. S. Lewis)

I will admit it, I am a glutton for punishment. Sometimes I do things that invite blow-back … For instance, every once in a while I try to discuss politics online. And right when I hit “send” to launch my text into cyber-space, a Bob Wiley (“What about Bob”) voice speaks silent words of reproof, “That was not smart…was not smart.” And sure enough, in mere minutes, disapproving comments flutter in from the nether-world: “Chris, you are out of your mind!”

Comment after comment of disgust come cascading in, until finally, the one person who is fed up following the stream of argument says, “Don’t you know, God is in control, whatever will be will be – It just doesn’t matter!!”

But I can’t simply let it go – – and therein lies my problem.  When it comes to things that really matter, something inside of me wants to make a difference. I want to effect change for the good. That is why I write blogs, I really believe a single person matters. Blaise Pascal, the 17th-century scientist and Christian philosopher, calls this truth the “dignity of causality.” God has allowed our lives to matter. To say, “Whatever will be will be” philosophically speaking, is a cop-out. Or worse yet, it is the negative philosophy of fatalism. Fatalism defined teaches that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable. There is nothing you can do about it, so quit striving, and quit caring. There is nothing more depressing than that!

But according to Genesis 1:27, God designed us in his image and has invited us to participate in his work. Listen to C. S. Lewis’ take on this point:

“God seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye. He allows us to neglect what He would have us do, or to fail. Perhaps we do not fully realize the problem, so to call it, of enabling finite free wills to coexist with Omnipotence … This is how (no light matter) God makes something—indeed, makes gods—out of nothing.”

Even Jesus teaches us that the prayer of one small believer moves God: “For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him how knocks, the door will be opened.” What happens if you don’t ask, seek or knock? James says, “You do not have because you do not ask.” We have the ability, through prayer and action, to effect causation. Look at your belly, don’t blame God for its unusually large girth. You were the one who transferred the chocolate chip cookie from the plate to your mouth.

Or better yet, are you a coffee drinker? Check out the causation chart at the top of this blog. You are to blame for your own sleepiness. You did it, it was your fault. God gave you that ability. He wants you to pray and even to vote. In other words, you matter.

My wife and I were able to live in the former Soviet Union for a whole year. Because of the monolithic power of communistic rule over the previous 70 years, the people we met felt like they had no chance to effect change. They rarely spoke up, they remained cloistered in their apartments, and they figured there was no chance to make a difference in the gray drab world of living in a socialist system, so why even try?

But there was one guy who wanted to change the world, his name was Yuri. He always asked me a ton of questions: “What was it like in America,” “How come so many people owned their own cars?” “Could you try different jobs throughout a lifetime in America?” One time I showed him some home movies of my mom’s house and her backyard pool. Yuri never saw anything like that. He was amazed you could have a pool in your backyard.

The next week Yuri invited me over to his house. He rented a large front-end loader with a backhoe and started to dig a hole for a pool. When I got there he was filling it up with water, and it was one big hole of muddy water. I asked him what he was doing and he said, “I want a pool so I thought I would start digging.” Crazy, but he wanted to try. He understood the “dignity of causation.”

Do you want things to happen? Or do you just give up and say “whatever will be will be?” Never forget, God made you with causality, that is how he has honored you with his image.