Do You Believe In Karma?

Do you believe in Karma? Do you know what it is? I bet you don't. Most people think that karma is kind of a judgment against people who do something bad. Kind of like payback. Kind of a cause-effect relationship for how we live our lives. That is NOT what karma is.

 

Karma is a Hindu / Buddhist belief that says if we live our current lives good enough, our next life will be better. The converse is also true for those who believe in "bad" karma. If we live our present lives badly we will come back in our next life in a worse condition.

 

Karma's main tenant is reincarnation. If you walk down the street and ask "Do you believe in karma?" many people will answer "yes." Ask the same people if they are Hindu's or Buddhists and most of those same people will answer "no."

 

The present day definition of karma has changed from what it used to be, all predicated on an incorrect belief about what it actually is.

 

Many Christians believe in the newer definition of karma, which begs the question, are they really Christians? Karma clashes with the teachings of Jesus. Although there are verses talking about "sowing and reaping," Christianity is based on faith, not works, not on the things we do.

 

So why do people believe that karma will get someone? They talk as if karma it a thing or a person or some sort of moral police force to keep everyone in line by punishing bad behavior and rewarding good. Isn't that what Christianity teaches? No!

 

The Gospel that Jesus preached tells us that we are ALL inherently bad.

“None is righteous, no, not one;" - Romans 3:10

 

With none of us good enough to get into heaven and there is no amount of good karma that's going to get us there, what's the point? The whole point, my friends, is Jesus!

 

Through faith in Christ we no longer have to worry about being "good enough." We don't have to concern ourselves with someone getting what they deserve. If that were the case, and you and I got what WE deserve? Yeah. Thank God for His precious gift of salvation. We can attain His promise of eternal life, not reincarnation, simply by believing Jesus was who He said He was, the Song of God, and that His sacrifice on the cross atoned for our sins, making us pure and holy in God's eyes, through that faith.

 

"6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." - Galatians 6:6-10

 

What Does The Bible Say About Karma? - GotQuestions.org

Jinx

The weeks before our daughter's wedding seemed to be going by rather smoothly - almost TOO smoothly. One could easily say we were overdue for something bad to happen in our lives but I don't believe in all of that karma stuff. And I don't do "luck" either. However, this past week my wife and I endured so many frustrating events in our lives one could easily say we were . . . jinxed.

It all was started when our relatively new high-tech oven failed. The cook top still worked but the oven simply would not get any warmer than 200 degrees. My wife had a lot of baking to do, getting ready for our daughter's wedding. And now that was impossible. Strangely enough, that's when the drain for the kitchen sink got clogged. So much for doing dishes (oh darn).

Naturally I decided to unclog the drain by myself. Why pay for a plumber, right? So I got a wrench and a bucket and headed down to the basement to open the clean out for the kitchen sink. All was proceeding as normal. I began unscrewing the cap on the clean out. The pipe began to drip as expected. Soon there was a trickle. It still wasn't draining fast enough for me. Maybe just another quarter turn . . . .

Whoosh!!!

My arm, the basement wall, several storage boxes and the carpeting were all suddenly soaking wet with dirty, grey sewer water. Nice. Smelled nice too. :O

Then I almost ran out of gas coming home the day before. My car notifies me when I get to within 50 miles of having no gas. It does it again at 25 miles. I'm not sure how I missed BOTH of those warnings but I did. When I finally noticed I was running low on gas, I got off the freeway at the next available exit with a gas station. The gas gage read - "2 miles to empty."

Why were all these bad things happening? Was Satan trying to get us to be angry or frustrated? Maybe. Were we being tested in some way? Perhaps. There was a lot of things that could have really ruined one of the most special weeks of our lives. So why didn't it? The answer, I believe, is God.

Really? How can God make us not care when bad things happen to us . . . when frustration mounts and it seems like nothing is going our way? Like we're jinxed or cursed.

I think it's because we have a faith that makes none of this earthly stuff matter. It is because our focus is on things above not the here below. It all depends on our point of view.

Scroll down through the posts on Facebook sometime. You will see dozens of posts by people who have an earthly view of things, not an eternal view. This morning's sampling was pretty typical. There was a movie quote about having sex. Another about how it's too cold outside. One about how someone doesn't like Thanksgiving. ANOTHER one about the temperature. Here's one. Someone is thinking about starting a blog! Ha!

Most of the posts I read are self-focused. Most of our troubles in this life are self-focused. What if we looked at everything with an eye towards heaven? What is we focus on the eternal aspect of everything that happens instead of the temporal?

Suddenly everything "here" becomes less important.

When our oven failed my wife called her best friend and asked to use HER oven. Cookies got baked and a friend came to the rescue, increasing the bond between my wife and her friend. When the drain clogged up the week before our daughter's wedding we were grateful it didn't happen when our house was filled with guests. When I almost ran out of gas I learned a lesson about planning ahead. It all depends on how we look at things.

When Job was confronted with all the things that went wrong in his life, what did HE do? He praised God. He worshipped. Perhaps we should try harder to find ways to do that. Maybe then things wouldn't seem so bad after all.

"20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” - Job 1:20-21

Blessed Be The Name by Matt Redman