Pascal's Wager

Psalm 37:23

My dad encouraged me with the words of this psalm in a birthday card yesterday.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

I want this to be true of me, and saying so puts me in a category of people the world finds strange. Some may look on me with pity, "How sad that someone would waste their life living by rules in a book (the Bible) he can't prove is true." Some others may scoff, "He needs his head examined! We've got to look out for #1. If we don't, who will? God? I don't think so."

But, I see things differently. I like the argument of Blaise Pascal, the great philosopher, who wagered his life for the Lord and thought it worth the risk. Here is my paraphrase of his argument.

Every person must decide to take a risk. We must decide to live for eternity or the present. Either God exists or he does not. There is an afterlife or there is not. Which will you choose? For those (like Pascal) who risk all on the belief in Christ, eternal life and judgment, must choose to allow their steps to be "ordered by the Lord." If right, then eternal wonder and joy await. If wrong, they will never know it. If nothing follows death, then what regret will they suffer? None.

However, the risk is much different for the non-believer. Whoever wagers that this life is all there is chooses to live by two creeds. The first is the famous, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." The second is articulated by Dostoevsky's atheistic character, Ivan, in The Brothers Karamazov, "Everything is lawful for me." If right, they have done their best to bring as much happiness to themselves as possible in this life for there is no other. If wrong, the wager goes bad on a scale that is unimaginable, for hell awaits all those who reject their Maker.

Pascal's view of the Christian life caused him to call the choice an easy one. For him, no amount of selfish living could deliver the happiness that living for the Lord could bring IN THIS LIFE. He was convinced that on his deathbed that it would never enter his mind that his choice to follow Christ would only be worth it if there was a huge payoff after death. He believed living for the Lord here and now is a great reward in itself. It reminds me of Jesus words, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."* The life he was speaking of was this temporal one.

So, in the end, those who risk their lives for God have nothing to fear. What risk are you taking?

*John 10:10
Note: Picture found on Wikipedia (Blaise Pascal)