Quick Rant in Random Thoughts
- April 12, 2020, 3:14 p.m.
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- Public
If you’re a Christian, you’re probably not going to like this one. Fair warning. Also I was raised in the church (Southern Baptist, amen.), So I’m not just talking out of my ass.
It really irks me when people automatically say something is a miracle, and give all the credit to God.
No, that’s not how that shit worked.
If you get diagnosed with cancer, and you do all the treatments, follow their diet guidelines, and you are one of the lucky ones who goes into remission, THAT IS NOT A MIRACLE.
I’m not saying God isn’t involved. God put the notion in the heads of all your doctors and nurses to go to school in the medical field, lead them into the right classes with the right professors, put them in your hospital, allowed them to combine for your treatment, and get you to remission. But it’s not a miracle. Calling your remission a miracle and saying God healed you is ignoring the doctors, nurses, radiologists, nutritionists, and counselors who helped you along the way. THEY healed you. Yeah, God put them there, and God IS INVOLVED, but God is not the sole reason your cancer went into remission.
A miracle would be you getting diagnosed with something like stage 4 metastatic lung cancer, being given a month to live, going home to die, doing absolutely nothing to treat it - no chemo, no radiation, no diet changes, nothing - but at a check up a week later, you’re in complete remission with no sign of cancer, THAT IS A MIRACLE..
or somebody fucked up the test results.
My mom had cancer. She died from it. At one point, she did go into complete remission. It wasn’t a miracle. She was on chemo and radiation, and something worked. But it wasn’t a miracle. If I said it was, then I would be completely negating everything her oncologist did, everything her nurses did, everything her radiologists did, everything everybody in that hospital did for her. Yes, God was involved, but her remission was NOT A MIRACLE.
Miracles exist. I do believe that. There are some things that happen for what ever reason that we are not meant to explain, and cannot explain. Those ARE miracles. You want to thank God for getting better, thank God for all the doctors and nurses who did the work to get you healed. Trust me, they absolutely do deserve the credit. Especially now.
J is a nurse. I’m persistently worried I’m going to get a WhatsApp from her saying she’s got covid19. She’s putting herself and her family at risk to help strangers. People who have no idea who she is, what her story is, how hard she’s worked to get where she is. And some of the people she’s going to help get well are going to call their recovery a miracle, and completely overlook everything she did. If you know a nurse, thank them profusely for everything they do. Medical professionals aren’t immune to this shit.
That’s all. Have a nice day.
Deleted user ⋅ April 12, 2020
As a Christian I agree, the term "miracle" gets thrown around way too loosely. God puts things into motion to set things where they need to be for specific outcomes, but to classify those circumstances as miracles really cheapens what a true miracle is. Credit where credit is due, but God is usually more akin to a puppeteer pulling the strings to achieve his desired outcomes, rather than being the literal hand that does the deed often described as a miracle.
He Who Must Not Be Named Deleted user ⋅ April 12, 2020
I've not heard it worded like that before, "puppeteer", but I find your discription accurate.
I agree with you on both it cheapening a true miracle, and how loosely the word is thrown around. It's a shame.
Telstar ⋅ April 12, 2020
I feel the same way about calling people "friends".
To some people, anyone they casually know is their "friend". For me, most people are acquaintances and a very few people are my friends.
He Who Must Not Be Named Telstar ⋅ April 15, 2020
Love is also a word that gets flung about far too casually by people who have no idea of its true meaning.
I don't keep many people around me, and if I do, they are friends. I don't hang out with my coworkers off the clock, as they're coworkers, not friends. (I refer to it as "separation of church and state", basically "don't mix business and pleasure".) People on my Facebook are actually friends. I know them in real life, I know their stories and their family, and i genuinely care about them. Obviously I don't have 100's of people on my friends list.