Day 215: I Trust In The Lord!

I was reading the discussion pages for one of my psychology modules, and one of the students wrote something like "prepare yourself for the exam and trust in the Lord".

Where does a god come in to the equation of studying for and either failing or passing an exam? Exams have nothing to do with possible divine intervening and everything to do with the person doing the studying in terms of their commitment and understanding of the subject material.

There are many aspects of our lives where people assume that there is some form of Divine Intervention, or that there is some god who actually cares whether they pass or fail (incidentally this god of theirs has no empathy for the people living in poverty and the animals being massacred in our world).

This blind faith that there is some "higher purpose or plan" guiding our lives serves to allow us to feel and believe that we are not responsible, because we are not the ones in control. Somehow, we are all just chugging along in God's Plan, and all we need to do to live well and ensure our place in a cushy spot in the afterlife is to trust in God and a few other things, depending on which God we are trusting in.

The fact is that we are in control. We direct our lives and directly influence the world around us that we have been born into. We are not puppets, we cannot claim impairment or inability or "God made me do it". We make choices, take actions and face the consequences thereof - sometimes we are able to make more choices and take more action so that we don't have to face the consequences immediately, but it is inevitable that we will face what we have each done and be held accountable. "God made me do it" doesn't undo what we have done, nor does it absolve us of our responsibility.

Our skill in avoiding consequences is a testament to our generations of practice in dodging responsibility.

I wonder if those who trust in God to carry them through life, exams and everything else would accept the challenge of remaining absolutely still - like pretend that they're a vegetable - so that God can actually do what they claim: apparently everything. I am certain that if they have enough faith, God would do things like transport them to their examination venue and proceed to complete their exam paper so that they get the mark that God wants them to get. But wouldn't that mean that it was actually God who would need to receive the exam marks? That part may be a bit blurry, but I'm sure God will clear it all up.

We are not sheep, we are the shepherds and therefore must honor and protect our charge: Life on Earth. I vote for an Equal Money System because it recognizes our responsibilities to ourselves and to all life.