A small boy prayed in church, ‘Dear Lord, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry. I am having a great time as I am.’

Who is in control? What do I mean? Well, you either think you are in total control, or some supreme ‘intelligence’ is in control or something in between.

A child could be forgiven for being confused. We don’t really promote the idea of ‘free will’ too much in the West any longer. If you want something to change you ask God. God the big fixer. But I have things broken in the house that God has never fixed, which makes me more inclined towards the idea of free will. We have all been let loose and spilled out of the Garden of Eden with part of the forbidden fruit in our hand. Free will was the deal / punishment. Remember?

I hope this idea doesn’t upset Christians because it’s there in the Bible. We are in charge. It’s not total emersion in cold water like Leonardo de Caprio’s character in the film ‘Titanic’. We have been placed in a life boat from where we watched the Garden of Eden point it’s propellers into the air and sink. Not such a bad life boat either. There are lots of things to keep us comfortable. We should be okay for a while.

Being in charge of our small universes is analogous to the supreme intelligence. He or she organised the big scientific rules and then set the thing in motion. We organise the house, the car, the kids and then set the thing in motion. In our organisational skills we are also, ‘in the image of God’.

Every so often our small world gets so tough we ask for a miracle. I was pushing a guys car off a dangerous bend once. It wasn’t easy because I was on my own and it was uphill and anyone who has ever pushed cars knows the rule to always push a car downhill. But in this case I had no option. Things in the universe were about to collide any moment and God wasn’t interested. Not his problem. Well I was praying like crazy as I pushed and this guy who was quite elderly looked on. At the point when I realised I had run out of strength another man just appeared next to me and started pushing. Together we pushed the car to safety.

So was that a minor miracle? If so, who caused it? I believe we also have the same power as the supreme intelligence to make miracles happen, to make plants that have never had flowers jump an evolutionary barrier and bloom. When we really, really, really want something, it happens. God is happy for us but doesn’t take the credit.

So, you have made an unsinkable ship? Why the lifeboats?

This philosophy explains why bad things happen to good people. In a universe set to spin in certain directions and speeds within which random things happen, there is plenty of space junk. Earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami all happen and although insurance companies put the blame on the Almighty, personally I prefer the geophysical explanations.

In such a random game shouldn’t we all be quaking in our boots? No, because bad stuff doesn’t happen very often and when it does, we have the power of miracles. Just read the stories of ‘lucky escapes’ from disasters. Sure the victims who lost their lives don’t get included in miracle stories but we all have our chances and the ability to increase our chances of staying alive. We don’t choose a house on a flood plain, and we don’t get flooded. That is free will, use it wisely.

The Arab countries who follow Islam are often depicted as being ‘fatalist’ but I often quote a saying they have, ‘trust in God, but tie up your camel first’. If you life in a desert, your life boat is your camel. Be nice to it.