Karma

Soon after I first got my driver’s license I was already hurriedly driving somewhere, late. I was too impatient to slow down at the yellow light and stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake. I ran a red light. I didn’t get caught by a camera or a cop, and continued to go. Within minutes, I was pulled over, with three other cars at the same time, by a cop, for a reason, to this day I believe was not fair (we were all going straight in a lane that wasn’t marked for going straight). But I thought, “hey, I deserved to get a ticket for running the red light,” and didn’t fight it.

Perhaps I didn’t really believe in natural Karma, but in a God-type of Karma. God paid back.

I recently got my purse stolen out of my car while it was parked at a beach near my house. It was a humiliating and violating feeling, and I couldn’t help but tell the story to everyone I met for weeks to follow! Everyone had an opinion. But a word that I kept hearing was “Karma.” Those I talked with at Ocean Beach, when I first discovered it was taken, pronounced cursings of bad Karma on the perpetrator. And more Karma after that. At the Farmer’s Market where I didn’t have the cash to buy the feather earrings I wanted from this New Age granola girl. At the Sprint store where I lamented my sad story to the Islamic sales clerk while getting my new phone. At Macy’s, where I explained to business professionals how I lost their credit card. At a country dancing bar where I explained to the “bouncers” why I brought my passport as an ID. To my western European students as we talked about a low experience of the week. Yes, everyone in San Diego knew my story, and everyone said the person who took my purse would get “paid back.”

Their sympathy helped relieve my sense of violation, but I wasn’t so sure their judgment was true. Partly, because I knew it was my fault, at least partly. But partly, because I wonder: does God always, necessarily, “pay back”?

I was talking with a friend last night about the Titanic. I’ve been newly curious about a ship’s anatomy and an engineer-minded friend of mine was explaining how the Titanic was built. He ended his explanation with: and they said it was the ship that God Himself couldn’t sink . . . and then He did. Woa! What a concept!

It made me think of the Tower of Babel. “We will build ourselves a tower to reach God.” But God confused their language, and the building stopped.

Another friend recently told me of a house he had designed and built, and how it, with others in the market at the same time, became more expensive than it was worth. He sold it. He was sad, but he said that he didn’t believe that his attitude was right when he was buying the house, so He wondered if God orchestrated him losing the house.

I find myself often asking that same question. But to another extreme. If I sin in one area, would I get “punished” by God in some other way? . . . I deserve it. I believe in justice.

Natural Consequences

For sure, we reap what we sow. If I work, I will make money. If I read, I will increase my knowledge. If I am friendly, I will make friends.  And on the contrary, if I sleep around, there is a one-in-four (and increasing!) chance that I will contract a disease. If I don’t sleep or eat or exercise, my body will become sick and weak. If I talk badly about someone, the people who hear me will likely not trust me with their own secrets.

There are natural consequences for things!!!

But does God pay back?

If I talk badly about someone, is someone completely unrelated to the situation going to gossip about me? If I sleep around, will I get a cancer completely unrelated to an STD? If I refuse to work, and rather steal money from my mother, will I get in a car accident?

Pay back . . . or Discipline

So in addition to natural consequences, God disciplines those He loves. He stops us from destroying ourselves and getting into the sin He know will hurt us so much.

There was a time I was in the middle of making a rash and bad decision. I was getting my purse to run out the door and drive off. I ran into the kitchen and ran right into a cupboard door I had left open in my frenzy. The pain stunned me and practically knocked me to the floor. As I sunk to the floor, I began breathing slowly and crying, and then thanking God for stopping me from making my bad decision.

I’ve faced many such moments where I believe God’s discipline has lovingly gotten me back on track . . . the track He knows I will be most happy in . . . the track with Him.

I do know that God is the executioner of justice . . . and there will be justice displayed to show that character of Himself. And those who flaunt in God's face, without turning to Jesus before they die WILL be paid back. But He is also a great Forgiver and Lover.

Although He allows natural consequences for our good and discipline, I am sure that He WANTS what is soooo good for those who are His.

Soooooooo . . . . will the thief of my purse face a kind of Karma? I don’t know!!!  J And I don't know that I hope it for him . . . although I hope for him to get a conscience! And THAT through Jesus!!!