I'm Not an Expert, but Come On

ISRAEL  SCHACHTER

For more than twenty-five years, I have made a living bringing people together, solving problems, and making things happen that others insisted were impossible. Along the way, I have been fortunate to have worked with some of the wealthiest, most powerful, and influential people in the world. Ultimately, one of the most fascinating things I have learned is how little control even they actually have.

I have seen extraordinary wealth fail to buy someone they deeply love another day of life. I have seen carefully constructed plans completely fall apart because of something nobody could possibly have anticipated. I have also witnessed the opposite: a chance encounter, an unexpected phone call, or a seemingly insignificant conversation setting off a chain of events that nobody involved could have planned.

When you are responsible for creating unique, extraordinary experiences, you know how much thought, planning, and coordination goes into making something appear seamless and effortless. This has also changed how I experience things other people create. I cannot attend an event or witness something remarkable without thinking about everything, and everyone, that went into making it happen. Perhaps that is why I find the suggestion that our entire existence is accidental so fascinating.

We recognize intelligence and intention behind extraordinary human accomplishments, even when we have no idea who was responsible or how they pulled them off. Yet when we look at a universe infinitely more complex than anything we could ever create, we are for some reason expected to accept that no intelligence or intention was involved.

Science can explain an extraordinary amount about how our universe works, and I do not see that as a challenge to my belief in God. Understanding how something works and why it exists in the first place are, in my mind, two entirely different questions.

I am not suggesting that every coincidence is divine intervention, or that I remotely comprehend why terrible things happen to wonderful people. Believe me, I have plenty of perplexing questions myself. In fact, anyone who assuredly claims to understand every one of God's decisions is probably someone I would avoid doing business with.

At the same time, I find it extremely difficult to believe that everything around us, including our very existence, came about without any intelligence or intention behind it. To me, that requires a far greater leap of faith than believing in a Creator.

I have spent a good part of my life figuring out who can make the impossible possible. I have met some remarkable people with extraordinary resources, influence, and abilities. People who can accomplish more with one phone call than others could in their entire lifetime.

However, I have never met anyone who could create a single moment of life, guarantee another tomorrow, or explain to me why there is something rather than nothing. I have never met anyone who could have created all of this. As far as I am concerned, though, I have a pretty good idea of the One who did.