It’s right on 3pm est. My mother’s having a cookout (small one) and I’m rolling out around 7-7:30ish to go out with a friend. I’ve spent a good portion of today cleaning up my apartment (aside from a few sparse posts on Puritan Board).

Anyway, right now, I’ve got my Stevie Wonder collection playing on iTunes. Stevie is my ‘thinking’ music (Prince is my ‘creating’ music). Stevie’s lyrics are always so pregnant with meaning and reflect much of the reality of life. I have a feeling that his church upbringing still plays a huge part in his thinking.

Anyway, the song playing as I started typing this is You Will Know.

Check the lyrics:

Lonely one of young so brokenhearted
Travelling down the rigid road of life
Using pharmaceutical extractions

To find the paradise

Finds the high but comes down feeling lower
Gets down on their knees and starts to pray
Looking up to heaven for the answer
They hear a voice that says

You will know
Troubled heart you’ll know
Problems have solutions

Trust and I will show

You will know
Troubled heart you’ll know
Every life has reason
For I made it so

Single parent trying to raise their children
But they would much rather not alone
Reaches out to find that special someone

To make their house a home

Finds someone but no one is the right one
Gets down on their knees and starts to pray
Looking up to heaven for the answer
They hear a voice that says

You will know
Troubled heart you’ll know
Problems have solutions

Trust and I will show

You will know
Troubled heart you’ll know
Every life has reason
For I made it so
(repeat chorus 2x)

Those of you who are Calvinistic like me will notice: Every life has reason for I made it so. Proverbs 16:4 echoed in my mind during the tail end of the chorus: “The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” (Prov. 16:4, ESV) and also Nebuchadnezzar’s acknowledgement of God’s sovereign rule:

“At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:34-35, ESV)

and Jesus Himself points us to this great truth:

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:29-31)

Over and against the molinist view of a God who only looks at possibilities and then manipulates things to come out the way He wants, the Biblical view of God is that even a sparrow’s death – something seemingly so small – doesn’t come to pass unless God wills it to do so. And humans are of more value than sparrows….

Think on it for a while.

Back to cleaning and then I’m out of here. Happy Fourth!

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