My heart pounded and my eyes widened in mixed horror and disbelief as I stared in the rear-view mirror. I braced myself for the impact I knew was coming as the large truck hit the back of my car. And I knew the man had done it on purpose, out of unreasonable anger. Shaking with shock I dialed 9-1-1. It was a very unfamiliar place in an unfamiliar town in a region where I’ve only lived for two years. Long story short, everything turned out okay. I wasn’t hurt, and the car was okay. Crazy road rage guy left the scene long before the police arrived. I was definitely shaken up, though. Who on earth would do something this malicious? I know that this situation is nothing compared to other bad things in the world, but this experience really made me think and helped clarify a few things as I was figuring out the future of Creation Clues.
Processing the Bad Stuff
When you get some kind of bad news, often the world feels upside-down and chaotic. You feel disoriented, like you thought you knew where you were, only to look up and realize you’re horribly lost, and nothing looks familiar. You feel like a little kid in a grocery store who suddenly realizes she is lost and alone with no parents in sight. The bad things in your life may look like a broken relationship or death of a loved one, when you suddenly realize that the relationship you thought you had does not exist anymore (or perhaps never really did). Once the initial shock and processing is gone and we are re-oriented to the new reality, there are two questions we usually ask ourselves: 1) why is there so much evil in the world? And, 2) what am I going to do about it. Let’s talk about the answer to those two questions
1) Why is there so much evil in the world?
I think that one part of growing up is realizing that there are a lot of bad things in the world. I remember experiencing a very difficult loss at the age of twelve. After a while of processing, I had a question deep inside that I did not want to ask out loud: why did God make all the bad things in the world? God put the answer plain and simple in my path one day. The answer is that He did not make any of the bad things in the world. Death, pain, accidents, misunderstandings, miscommunications, and brokenness in our world are all the results of sin. God created a perfect world – He called everything that He had created very good. Then the very first humans, Adam and Eve chose to go against God which brought sin into the world and all the other bad things with it.
2) What am I going to do about it?
The world is full of darkness and evil. Bad things happen all the time – terrorist attacks, school shootings, accidents, and natural disasters. You never really know who to trust, since people tend to be selfish and sinful. The very people you are helping, or who are working alongside you, may suddenly turn against you at any time. It’s a little like Mission: Impossible in real life. You never know who’s really on your side or who might be wearing a mask. There are two ways you and I can choose to react to these facts:
A) Protect ourselves – you can hunker down and hide to shield yourself from the evil as much as possible. Don’t get close to other people so you don’t get hurt. Don’t take risks so that you don’t fail. Don’t help people so no one can take advantage of you. Don’t love people so you don’t have to worry about losing them. I don’t know about you, but I think that sounds like a really sad, horrible way to live life. Is it safe? Maybe. Is it good? Not at all. In fact, it can actually make the problem of bad things in the world worse, because if you choose this route, you can easily become part of the problem. Christian singer Jason Gray put this idea beautifully in a line of a song:
“It’s hard to bring your heart to a world that can break it
Jason Gray, Fear is Easy, Love is Hard*
To offer love to those you’re afraid will forsake it
But a well-defended heart is always looking for a fight
In a lonely war against an endless night
But love can bring a light”
B) Be the good – on the other hand, you can choose to love all the other hurting people. I choose to be the goodness and love that I want to see in the world around me. Of course, we all make mistakes and have bad days, but thankfully that goodness and love does not have to come from my own very messed-up human heart. Because of what Jesus did to pay for all my badness and mistakes, I can take on His identity and express His love and goodness through my life. You can choose to do this, too. He wants to give you new life and hope so that you can pour that out to the world around you, too. Needless to say, that doesn’t mean you should do stupid things – the Bible says that we should be as wise as a snake, but as harmless as a dove.
Why Creation Clues?
My main heart-goal with writing Creation Clues is to offer hope. This has been my goal all along since I started Creation Clues almost seven years ago (2012), but the more life I live, the more important I realize hope is. Would it be easier for me to not write Creation Clues? Of course – between full-time work, home, family, and community responsibilities I’m definitely not bored. With plenty of bills to pay and important things like a house to save for, I could always be working on my side jobs that actually make money instead of writing Creation Clues. But this important reason of bringing hope to people through my writings about science and the Bible is more valuable to me than money or my most valuable asset – time. To me, bringing hope to people is absolutely worth the time I put into Creation Clues.
Exciting Future
We have lots of new and exciting projects planned for this year that I can’t wait to share with you! We are working on some very fun, new, short videos. We are leading an educational family-camp dinosaur dig adventure this year – check out our About page to find out more about how you can go with us! Also, we are super excited that we are working on the first two Creation Clues books! If you want more of what you see on Creation Clues or want to help us with these upcoming projects, please consider supporting this effort with your prayers or a donation. Check out our new Get Involved page to find ways that you can help inspire others with more clues of hope!
© 2019, Sara J. Mikkelson
*Quote from the song “Fear is Easy, Love is Hard”, by Jason Gray. See YouTube video below
