The press certainly loves its stories of courageous Christians. A headline news video on Yahoo today tells of how a clerk shared Jesus with a man who was attempting to rob the store. It wasn't that long ago that the story of another clerk praying with a robber became the inspirational talking point of many believers, raving about how God can do anything and always looks out for his people. But I have to wonder, how many clerks have been shot or robbed even after trying to witness to a criminal? Will we ever see a headline, "Clerk Shot in the Face After Preaching to Robber"? Not likely... except in The Onion, perhaps.
I see this sort of feel-good story in the same way I see the reports of miraculous survivals against the odds. When someone suffering from a terminal illness lives and attributes it to God, the other countless unlucky persons are usually never allowed to give their side of the story. Mostly because no god came through to save them. Likewise, for every tale of a courageous believer foiling a criminal's plans by ministering to them, there are countless dozens of unlucky others who were killed despite their efforts. Missionaries die all the time despite their efforts, and yet this is never counted as a strike against faith.
Maybe this blog entry will seem callous and heartless to some people, but it's worth asking why we count the hits and ignore the misses often times. I suspect that we don't count things fairly because we fear what the results might reveal to us. Random, indiscriminate circumstances. Then again, doesn't the bible say that God sends rain on both the righteous and the wicked? So what's all this nonsense about thinking that God's tweaking knobs behind every corner?
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