I can prove the existence of God from a hangnail
(Preliminary note: To understand this entry, you have to know what a hangnail is. By definition it is "a small piece of dead skin at the side or the base of a fingernail that is partly detached from the rest of the skin." This skin becomes inflamed, causing the area to get very red and sore. I'm sure you all have experienced this at one time or another.)
Because of human nature and how we will make mistakes because that is part of being human, and because of the way this world is, there is a very strong likelihood that the following things will happen to me at least once during the course of the rest of my life (and for most of them, they will happen many, many times):
I will get a hangnail.
I will hit my funny bone.
I will drink something cold and get brain freeze.
I will get a huge, ugly zit on my face.
I will gag.
I will vomit.
I will get a cold.
I will get the flu.
I will forget to set my alarm clock.
I will rush around like crazy trying to get someplace important on time.
I will get to that place late.
I will make people disappointed in me for something I couldn't help.
I will say the wrong thing and not realize it.
I will get exceedingly embarrassed.
I will inadvertently offend someone.
I will be in a near car accident when someone cuts me off.
I will experience that moment of terror when I think I'm going to get hit.
I will be in a car accident that won't be my fault.
I will get injured because of something accidental that couldn't be avoided.
I will make an important judgment or decision and be wrong.
I will get a paper cut.
I will lose something important and not be able to find it.
I will accidentally throw away something I meant to keep.
I will have someone I love die.
I will miss a step on the stairs.
I will experience a moment of sheer panic when I believe something is terribly wrong when it really isn't.
I will misunderstand someone.
I will leave something important in my pocket and let it go through the washer and dryer.
I will trip.
I will fall.
I will get a parking or moving violation.
I will have an enormous regret.
I will drop something expensive and break it.
I will make a promise I intend to keep but won't be able to.
I will have a bad hair day.
I will wake up with a stiff neck.
I will have a bad headache.
I will get stuck in a traffic jam.
I will promise to do something for someone and forget about it completely.
I will unintentionally physically hurt someone else.
I will get old and see my body wrinkle, stiffen, and deteriorate.
I will buy someone a gift that they hate.
I will see some of my hopes and dreams fail.
I will invest my time and money into something that ends up being worthless.
I will get a painful cuticle.
I will be tricked.
I will miss a friend's birthday.
I will be a victim of some kind of crime.
I will temporarily lose my voice.
I will think of something I should have said, long after the opportunity is over.
I will see something that I'll wish I could completely erase from my memory.
I will have to tell someone something that they don't want to hear.
I will make a mistake. I will become a statistic. I will encounter unpleasantness. I will be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I will experience what all humans experience being in human bodies in a imperfect world. I will forget. I will fail. I will sin.
Over and over and over again.
Most, if not all, of that is going to happen to me. It's part of life. Even if I tried my hardest to live a godly, sinless life, I'm still going to sleep in the wrong position and end up with a stiff neck or get injured because of someone else's carelessness. No matter how God-abiding or law-abiding I am, I can't prevent everything. Overall, life is unbelievably difficult.
It is so overwhelming me for me to think of all the negative things I will have to experience during the rest of my life. What if I knew I was going to hit my funny bone 69 more times before I die? Or vomit 74 more times, once doing it straight for three days in a row? Or lose a total of $94.87 to the washer and dryer, couch, and gutter? If I really knew exactly how many times and to what degree I'd experience all the above things, I think I'd just give up right now. Sure, I know all the many joys I'll get to have--often outweighing the bad--but in the very moment of experiencing those negative things--in that moment of blushing a deep red because of something horribly embarrassing or in that moment when you're at a busy public place and you just realize that one of your children is not with you and could be lost anywhere or kidnapped--the horror and the agony and the pain of the moment is so intense that you honestly want to die. In those moments you forget the joy, the good times, the smiles and laughter.
It is in those moments when life is bleakest and darkest that heaven looks its most inviting and brightest. It will hold all the good we know now, plus an unbelievable amount more than we could ever imagine, minus all the horrible trials we experience on earth. Right now we are so earth-bound that it is difficult to see past the temporal. Life often becomes nothing more than rushing to work every morning and making sure that the DVDs get returned to the rental store before they accumulate fines. Yes, Adam was created from the dust of the ground, but remember that God breathed into him the breath of life. Only then did Adam become a living soul. We may be stuck on earth in our made-from-earth bodies, but they are just holding cells to keep our God-made spirits inside. If we didn't have bodies, our souls would spring right up to heaven where they long to be. Someday we'll break free from our earth-bound casings, which experience brain freeze and paper cuts and disappointment and fear, and realize that there is more to life than all that. Our bodies are temporal, but our spirits--those are made for celestial places.
It is incredible that even strange things like hangnails or the stomach flu can remind us of God. This world is imperfect. This system is imperfect. We are imperfect. But we long for perfection. We wish for these unpleasant things to desist. If life were no more than just the time spent on earth, and that was it, we would not dislike missing a step on the stair or unintentionally injuring a friend. These would define life and our identity; we would not feel as if they were flaws or things undesirable. But because of the obvious fact that we feel that these things are bad or unpleasant or wrong (especially if we feel they are wrong), then that means they are imperfect. And if there is imperfection (hangnails), there must be perfection (healthy nails). If there is sin, there must be righteousness. If there are human beings, there must be a God. If we feel that something is less-than-perfect (hangnails), there must be an internal law that has been broken (we all believe that hangnails are undesirable, not to mention painful). If there is such a law inside of us, there must be law maker who put it there. If there is a law maker, he must be greater than us to be able to come up with a standard above our imperfections (for they would not be imperfections unless he has defined perfection--hangnails become bad once we determine that healthy nails are possible and preferable). If we dislike imperfections (hangnails) and prefer perfection (healthy nails), we affirm the law maker's standards (he says healthy nails are best; we agree). He defines what is good and bad. We wouldn't know either without his definition. We wouldn't have his definition without him.
Therefore, if we think that hangnails are annoying, God definitely exists.
Because of human nature and how we will make mistakes because that is part of being human, and because of the way this world is, there is a very strong likelihood that the following things will happen to me at least once during the course of the rest of my life (and for most of them, they will happen many, many times):
I will get a hangnail.
I will hit my funny bone.
I will drink something cold and get brain freeze.
I will get a huge, ugly zit on my face.
I will gag.
I will vomit.
I will get a cold.
I will get the flu.
I will forget to set my alarm clock.
I will rush around like crazy trying to get someplace important on time.
I will get to that place late.
I will make people disappointed in me for something I couldn't help.
I will say the wrong thing and not realize it.
I will get exceedingly embarrassed.
I will inadvertently offend someone.
I will be in a near car accident when someone cuts me off.
I will experience that moment of terror when I think I'm going to get hit.
I will be in a car accident that won't be my fault.
I will get injured because of something accidental that couldn't be avoided.
I will make an important judgment or decision and be wrong.
I will get a paper cut.
I will lose something important and not be able to find it.
I will accidentally throw away something I meant to keep.
I will have someone I love die.
I will miss a step on the stairs.
I will experience a moment of sheer panic when I believe something is terribly wrong when it really isn't.
I will misunderstand someone.
I will leave something important in my pocket and let it go through the washer and dryer.
I will trip.
I will fall.
I will get a parking or moving violation.
I will have an enormous regret.
I will drop something expensive and break it.
I will make a promise I intend to keep but won't be able to.
I will have a bad hair day.
I will wake up with a stiff neck.
I will have a bad headache.
I will get stuck in a traffic jam.
I will promise to do something for someone and forget about it completely.
I will unintentionally physically hurt someone else.
I will get old and see my body wrinkle, stiffen, and deteriorate.
I will buy someone a gift that they hate.
I will see some of my hopes and dreams fail.
I will invest my time and money into something that ends up being worthless.
I will get a painful cuticle.
I will be tricked.
I will miss a friend's birthday.
I will be a victim of some kind of crime.
I will temporarily lose my voice.
I will think of something I should have said, long after the opportunity is over.
I will see something that I'll wish I could completely erase from my memory.
I will have to tell someone something that they don't want to hear.
I will make a mistake. I will become a statistic. I will encounter unpleasantness. I will be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I will experience what all humans experience being in human bodies in a imperfect world. I will forget. I will fail. I will sin.
Over and over and over again.
Most, if not all, of that is going to happen to me. It's part of life. Even if I tried my hardest to live a godly, sinless life, I'm still going to sleep in the wrong position and end up with a stiff neck or get injured because of someone else's carelessness. No matter how God-abiding or law-abiding I am, I can't prevent everything. Overall, life is unbelievably difficult.
It is so overwhelming me for me to think of all the negative things I will have to experience during the rest of my life. What if I knew I was going to hit my funny bone 69 more times before I die? Or vomit 74 more times, once doing it straight for three days in a row? Or lose a total of $94.87 to the washer and dryer, couch, and gutter? If I really knew exactly how many times and to what degree I'd experience all the above things, I think I'd just give up right now. Sure, I know all the many joys I'll get to have--often outweighing the bad--but in the very moment of experiencing those negative things--in that moment of blushing a deep red because of something horribly embarrassing or in that moment when you're at a busy public place and you just realize that one of your children is not with you and could be lost anywhere or kidnapped--the horror and the agony and the pain of the moment is so intense that you honestly want to die. In those moments you forget the joy, the good times, the smiles and laughter.
It is in those moments when life is bleakest and darkest that heaven looks its most inviting and brightest. It will hold all the good we know now, plus an unbelievable amount more than we could ever imagine, minus all the horrible trials we experience on earth. Right now we are so earth-bound that it is difficult to see past the temporal. Life often becomes nothing more than rushing to work every morning and making sure that the DVDs get returned to the rental store before they accumulate fines. Yes, Adam was created from the dust of the ground, but remember that God breathed into him the breath of life. Only then did Adam become a living soul. We may be stuck on earth in our made-from-earth bodies, but they are just holding cells to keep our God-made spirits inside. If we didn't have bodies, our souls would spring right up to heaven where they long to be. Someday we'll break free from our earth-bound casings, which experience brain freeze and paper cuts and disappointment and fear, and realize that there is more to life than all that. Our bodies are temporal, but our spirits--those are made for celestial places.
It is incredible that even strange things like hangnails or the stomach flu can remind us of God. This world is imperfect. This system is imperfect. We are imperfect. But we long for perfection. We wish for these unpleasant things to desist. If life were no more than just the time spent on earth, and that was it, we would not dislike missing a step on the stair or unintentionally injuring a friend. These would define life and our identity; we would not feel as if they were flaws or things undesirable. But because of the obvious fact that we feel that these things are bad or unpleasant or wrong (especially if we feel they are wrong), then that means they are imperfect. And if there is imperfection (hangnails), there must be perfection (healthy nails). If there is sin, there must be righteousness. If there are human beings, there must be a God. If we feel that something is less-than-perfect (hangnails), there must be an internal law that has been broken (we all believe that hangnails are undesirable, not to mention painful). If there is such a law inside of us, there must be law maker who put it there. If there is a law maker, he must be greater than us to be able to come up with a standard above our imperfections (for they would not be imperfections unless he has defined perfection--hangnails become bad once we determine that healthy nails are possible and preferable). If we dislike imperfections (hangnails) and prefer perfection (healthy nails), we affirm the law maker's standards (he says healthy nails are best; we agree). He defines what is good and bad. We wouldn't know either without his definition. We wouldn't have his definition without him.
Therefore, if we think that hangnails are annoying, God definitely exists.