INSURANCE THEOLOGY

I think the phrase ‘acts of God’ has come to us from the insurance industry. Read the small print of some kinds of insurance policies and you will find that certain things aren’t covered: those disasters called ‘acts of God.’ Things like floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc.

I read in the Birmingham News that Toyota’s profits are down. They blame floods in Thailand and earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan. An analyst in the automobile industry said, “It’s [sic] acts of God after other acts of God.”

  

I think God gets a bad rap. Of course God is in everything, including earthquakes and floods. We humans should learn to stay out of the way of those powerful, natural forces. But why focus on the destructive? Why can’t we look at a beautiful sunset and say, “That’s an act of God”? Or why don’t we look at two people in love with each other and say, “Look! An act of God!”

Every day we see acts of God. All the random acts of kindness, the creativity of men and women and children, the protests against greed and violence—all acts of God.

Insurance companies have to do what insurance companies do. But we aren’t limited by their small definitions of the divine.

Today, be an act of God.