God is in the ERRORS
I was talking to a friend the other day about this old philosopher who tried to use science to prove the existence of God. The result of this was Bayes theorem which is used a lot in data science and statistical analysis. I didn’t do very well in my college stats class so I’m not going to try and explain how the math works but the main idea that I got from the conversation is that even when you’re using science and hard facts, there is still a percentage of error, a confidence interval, some level of uncertainty that can’t be explained. Good ole Mr. Bayes essentially said that that’s where we find God- in the errors. There are things that simply cannot be reasoned with logic or data. There are events that could not have been predicted and occurrences that simply don’t make sense. There are irregularities that cannot be explained, therefore there is God. God is in the errors.
Now I believe in God for a lot of reasons but that particular statement really moved me. God is in the errors. I think it hit me so strongly because although 2020 has felt like one giant error, this year is where I’ve seen God the most clearly. Usually we think of God as the one who is in all that is beautiful, intricate, and inspiring in the world. There’s a song called Voice of God that talks about hearing God in the sound of a newborn baby crying or a Grandfather telling a story. I wholeheartedly believe that the presence of the divine creator is manifested in the beauty of his creation, however because he is sovereign and infinite, he can’t be limited to the positives in life. If the reality of God could only be expressed through the things that bring us happiness, then he wouldn’t really be God, or worse, he’d be a God that thrived in your ideology but had no place in your reality.
To be the God of the Bible, he must be a God that is found in the errors. He must be a God that shows up when things are difficult and infuriating and unexplainable. He must be a God who is as real in death as he is in life. After all the devil is the devil but he’s God’s devil. If God wasn’t in the errors, he couldn’t be in control. For His light to be recognized, there has to be a darkness that dissipates in his presence. The most intriguing part for me is God isn’t only in the errors. He’s in everything. God has been there the whole time, but usually we only see him deeply when things go wrong. He is the question and the answer, the only unshakable truth in a world that has mastered lies. When things don’t go according to plan, when we are down and out and desperate for healing...hope...truth, that is when we are most genuinely able to encounter God, because it is in those moments that we are compelled to search for Him. When nothing makes sense, we are able to look to a father that creates meaning out of the meaningless.
If you think about it, the errors we see are only errors to us because we move through the world as though we have way more knowledge and control over what happens than we really do. If this year has shown us anything, it is how vulnerable we are to circumstances out of our control and beyond our understanding. But God is perfect, he doesn’t make mistakes, and as far as he is concerned, there are no errors, there is just his divine and sovereign will. When you look at God’s sovereignty and all the horrible wickedness and suffering in the world, it is easy to doubt how a good God could allow such misery. It's easy to think that either he can’t fix it or he simply doesn’t want to. But a mind that is willing to see God in these errors may realize that perhaps the depravity of humanity doesn’t point to a wicked God, perhaps it points to a wicked people desperately in need of a good God. The probability of pain doesn’t mean that God isn’t there, the potential for joy means that he never left. A God in the errors is the only God that could truly love the complexity of humanity enough to sacrifice everything for a people he knew would abandon him the moment life got the least bit uncomfortable.
Realizing that God is in the errors helps give us the perspective shift we need to find hope in difficult times. Whether you believe in Jesus or not, life will be full of errors- unexplainable glitches that force you to deviate from the path you would have chosen for yourself. Without God, you would still have to have faith. It might be faith in self, or “the system”, or the statistical probability that things will get better, but personally, I’d rather have faith in the savior. I’d rather believe in the one that is good enough, and knowledgeable enough, and powerful enough to customize the errors in my life to shape me into the person I’m supposed to be. I’d rather put my faith in a God that’s loving enough to give me free will but gracious enough to use my wrong choices to make me stronger.
God is in the errors, he’s in the inconsistencies, he’s in the flaws. He’s the God of your joys and the God of your sorrows. He’s the God of your hope and the God of your pain. If our human reasoning could completely figure him out, then he wouldn’t be the God of the universe, he’d be a god we created out of our intellect, a god who couldn’t possibly be worthy of our worship.
I think this is why brother Paul was able to say
“I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ,[a] who gives me strength.”
(Phillipians 4:12-13)
And I believe this is why uncle James said
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
(James 1:2-4)
If you want to push it even further, You can see that the death of Jesus appeared to be an error, but one constant we find is that those who are able to really push past doubt into peace, purpose and progress are those who, just like our savior, can see the wonderful glory of a God in the errors.