Last week Saturday, in the newspaper “De Telegraaf” an interview was published with the Dutch gymnast Yuri van Gelder, nicknamed “the Lord of the Rings”. In recent years, he has gone through a deep valley because of drug addiction. In the interview, he looks back and says the following:
I believe that in life everything is determined beforehand. Eventually the road runs exactly as it should. And it’s up to yourself what you do with the tribulations that you encounter along the way. That is why I experience my heavier periods not very negatively. The lessons I draw out of it are very valuable and contribute to my development.
Nothing in the interview indicates that Yuri is religious or has any notion of “the Scriptures”. But he has a realization of God: everything is determined beforehand and fits into the grand plan. That realization helps him to experience a difficult period not as a negative, because nothing ever goes awry.
If you ask me, Yuri van Gelder, here, shows to have a much greater awareness of God than the average Christian, who believes that angels and men ever were able to thwart God’s plan and that God, ever since, is trying to save what can be saved.
God is GOD: there is One Who gives a PLACE to EVERYTHING (Theos=Placer), both good and evil. And everything, in the end, unfolds exactly as it should!
6 That they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is a limit apart from Me. I am Yahweh Elohim, and there is none else. 7 Former of light and Creator of darkness, Maker of good and Creator of evil. I, Yahweh Elohim, made all of these things.
Isaiah 45 (CLV)
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Translation: Peter Feddema
