Life’s a Miracle

This question gives me a sense of déjà vu 😀. I feel that I answered it a few times recently.

Stephen Hawking noted that if the expansion rate of the universe one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by 1 part in 10¹⁵, the universe would have collapsed.

Creationists believe that the universe was directly created by God over 7 days. I don’t know if anyone ever attempted to calculate your chances of existence in that model, but it’s still a great privilege to exist.

So, whatever your religion or lack of religion, it’s a miracle that you’re here at all. But we take it all for granted, don’t we? 😀

So, what motivates me?

I suppose that I could answer by saying that some trivial things motivate me, and some deeper things do too. Every day, I should remind myself that it’s great to be alive.

So, let’s list some trivial things first:

• Coffee: First thing in the morning 😀
• Walks: Going for walks
• Projects: Having some projects “on the go”. Recently I started creating a private online detailed chronicle of my own life. Just for fun, I went backwards into the era of my parents and grandparents, so I’m starting at 1900. I obviously don’t have many personal records for the era before my own lifetime, but I list songs, movies, events, and try to find old pictures of Cork for every year, and if possible, for every month. And as time goes on, I’ll keep tweaking it, especially the parts that cover my own personal memories. And if I read a book on something, such as the history of railways in Ireland, I’ll try to merge significant dates in. Another project will be to do a chronicle of history. I’ve done that before, but I’m gonna use Google Sites this time, and select events that are of particular interest to me, such as church history.
• Reading: Now that I’m pretty much retired, I’m trying to revive this hobby. For many years, work was so stressful that I had very little mental energy left at the close of the working day. I did read, but not very much. I hope to change that now.
• Virtual travel: I don’t do much real travelling these days, but a few weeks ago, I decided to select a country each day to pray for and to travel to using YouTube and Google Earth-type applications, such as Wander. Yesterday I was in Brunei. I’d never even heard of that country until I saw a “like” from it on one of my posts a few weeks ago. Maybe many haven’t heard of Ireland either. One fun fact about Brunei is that lots of animals can fly, including foxes, lemurs, geckos, lizards and gliding snakes 😀.
• Learning: Nowadays, I have more freedom to learn what I want to learn at my own pace. Throughout my life, I’ve often had to study, but I sometimes disliked having to focus on exams, specific projects etc. I looked forward to retirement. Now that I am retired, I am motivated to learn. Someone asked Billy Graham if he had any regrets. He said that he’d like to have studied more, prayed more, and spent more time with his family. That’s precisely how I feel, although I was never really deprived of spending time with my family.
• Music: I rarely go a day without listening to and playing music.
• Computer games: Apart from a brief period with Pong, I took little interest in computer games until I was 30. I was in a toy shop, and I was a bit curious about Nintendo and Sega consoles. I think that I might have tried Tetris or something, which was on display. Since then, I have enjoyed computer games. These days, I generally play virtual reality games, such as Walkabout Golf, Real VR Fishing and Demeo. I often watch YouTube on my Meta Oculus console too in virtual cinemas such as Bigscreen.
• Family and church: I’m a bit of an introvert, but I like some level of contact with others. I probably spend most of the day on my own, but I like to hear noises around the house. And I enjoy meeting new people in church. Nowadays, you meet people from all over the world in Ireland. I’ve rarely had really close friendships, especially since I got married. But I fondly remember hundreds or maybe thousands of people who I’ve had some level of contact with throughout my life.

Now for some deep motivation. I think of a well-known quote from The Westminster Shorter Catechism:
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.

Scripture References:

1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 

Psalm 73:24-26
You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will take me into glory.
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart
    and my portion forever.

John 17:22,24 (Prayer of Jesus)
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. ²⁴ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

I sometimes wonder what motivates serious-minded atheists. Perhaps if I were an atheist, I would feel privileged to exist and to have spent some time in the universe. But I would be curious about what underlies it all. I can understand why they might see the God of the Bible as a bit primitive. But if whatever is behind the universe was going to communicate with us, why might it not communicate in a form that people, whether ancient or modern can understand? As a Christian, I’m not keen on drifting into creating a “philosophical god” that’s different from the God of the Bible. God has chosen to present himself in a certain way. I can accept that He is most likely far more complicated than we will ever understand. I remember Richard Dawkins saying that he was somewhat open to “god” in the sense of something underlying the universe, but he was put off by “forgiveness of sins” and all that stuff. But as I heard him, I thought that a sense of justice and the need to sort things out between people is a very common theme among humans. Where does that come from? Why shouldn’t what lies behind the universe have a moral dimension? See A Beginner’s Guide to the Moral Argument.

Anyway, my faith motivates me, and this is reflected in some of my favourite hymns. Here are two examples: