The Problem With Karma

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Two weekends ago, one of the women we met on the mountain brought up the notion of karma. After we discussed with her all the fire pits, the hunting blind, and the squatter's cabin that we found, she announced while clearly incensed that she hoped karma caught up with them. Wouldn't that make life easy? You could tell immediately who was wicked in theory, but in practice, if people immediately reaped what they sowed, we would actually know almost nothing about who they really were. Karma tells us that we reap what we sow, that what goes around comes around, and the trouble with that is that most people do both virtuous and vile things. The virtuous things done by virtuous people seem to have an inexorably long path length before they return as do the vile things done by villainous people. If you were immediately paid for your actions, people would act in a way to get the good things in life. You see, why we do a thing matters at least as much as what we do, and if you're doing it for the rewards, virtuous actions become less virtuous. Our insistence on karma is usually duplicitous. We demand it act in favor of the people we like while we caricature strangers and enemies and hope they "get their comeuppance". The problem with Karma is not how it works but how we wish it would.

Most of the people I meet, including this well-meaning albeit misguided woman, have a duplicitous view of the world. They defend their friends and attack their enemies. They point out the virtues in those they love and paint others in caricature. They love those that love them. They are human. Like most humans, they demand Justice for the wrongs protracted by others and Mercy for the wrongs perpetrated by them. They demand Suffering for the ill sent out by others and Blessings only to reward us for the good they send out. As I previously wrote, you truly only stand for something when you advocate on behalf of people you do not know or do not like.

In 1774, John Adams stood as a stalwart example of this. After several British soldiers opened fire into the infamous crowd in Boston, killing several people including a free black man, Adams was asked to represent the soldiers at their murder trial. Adams took the case because he knew something we all need to remember- British soldiers are people too. Even drug dealers, serial killers, SS officers, viking raiders, pirates, drunk drivers, and every other person who committed a crime against the law or against humanity is a person too. It was hard I am sure for Adams to advocate on behalf of these men particularly in the context of revolution and rebellion and against the vehement outcry of the assembled gallery. However, he was right to do so. They deserve good karma too. We do not know everything about everything. Even if all the information you possess is true, usually you do not have all of the information.

Forgive me two personal anecdotes. Several years back, a man threatened to kill me. This is not new. In total, he is only one of five, but only one of those actually did anything, and he only managed to make me vomit. The man's threat put me in a tough spot, first in terms of my physical well-being, and then in terms of my eternal disposition and state of grace. After the reason for his threat decided to stop talking to me and abide his tyranny, it fell to me to handle it well. Eventually, and this was some time last fall, I came to a place where I could pray for him and see him as God does. I told the members of my congregation that I pray for this man, not because I love him, but because God does. He is a precious son of God; God loves him. Sure, he and I have bad blood, but I love God, and God loves this man, and so I cannot do anything other than wish good for him. Likewise with my ex wife, I came to that same place. After all the privations and suffering occasioned by the termination of our relationship, after all that it cost me, I have no desire for karma to kick her in the gluteus maximus. I don't win anything by that; making her low will not elevate me. I confess I don't ask God to decorate her floor with gold bullion, to smooth the ridges in her career or preserve her against all enemies bacterial and homo sapien. However, I do pray that things in her life will happen that offer her a chance to change her attitude, to treat others better, to turn to Christ and turn her life around. I do this not for me but for her new husband, for their daughter, for her siblings, and for the benefit of the people she encounters. None of them need to suffer because I have a misbegotten desire for vengeance or misdirected justice. I'm ok letting her go and letting go of the need to be rewarded for what I lost in that chapter of my life. I'm ok if karma ignores us both.

After all is said and done, each one of us deserves what we get. Truth is that every man is in every minute less than he ought to be. Some men have the mistaken notion that judgment is some sort of scale, that if our virtues and good deeds manage to outweigh the bad then we get into heaven or our eternal reward. That strikes me as impossible. It claims that grandiose deeds at the end of life can ablate the damage of a lifetime of wickedness. IT claims that you, once fallen, can restore yourself to a state of splendor. It claims that you have no need of a Savior. It says that acts don't matter as long as you do just one more good deed than wicked one. It says you can save yourself. In essence, it denies the Christ and is in itself a sin. Each of us has made a mistake, and so each of us deserves justice. Each of us has bad karma coming, no matter what else good may come. That goes on our "permanent record" so to speak, because it's true. We think that our sins ought be forgiven while we indemnify others in perpetuity for theirs. We believe that God can and will and must forgive us but that He cannot will not and may not forgive men like Hitler, Tojo, Polpot, Stalin, Ghengis Khan, Marcus Brutus, and other villains throughout time. It denies the power of an Almighty except when WE think it ought to work. That's not how it works. We are supposed to be a light unto the world, to bring good things, to do good things, to be good people regardless of what fate or karma deal us. Our detractors are very good to point out the motes in our eyes and the beams even when they have plenty of their own. They do not do this hoping to help us reform; they do it to excuse themselves from having to do so. Like the bullies do elsewhere, they paint us as lesser lights link because they want us to shy away and do nothing. This way, nobody notices the bully's stain and nobody rises above because all they can see is that they made mistakes. If we must hang forever for a mistake we make, then there is no opportunity for good karma to bless us. Jesus hung for a moment so that the rest of us do not have to.

People act because of the karma they see. People who believe in karma see a disconnect and hope to force karma's action without knowing the heart, without knowing the why. In "A Man for All Seasons" Thomas More says: “If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that avarice, anger, pride and stupidity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice and thought perhaps we must stand fast a little, even at the risk of being heroes.” People see that virtue doesn't pay and so they choose vice. If virtue did pay, people would live virtuously, not for the sake of virtue, but for the rewards they demand karma bring them. We would not be able to see karma because everyone would live well for the rewards. Living in excessive virtue could actually then be a vice. It's a tricky situation. We can only see the outside, but as Samuel reminded Saul "The Lord seeth not as a man seeth; the lord looketh on the heart". He knows why we do a thing. He knows it's not a scale, it's not a tally in a ledger, and that it's not about what we do but what we are. He knows who we are. Past heroism is no excuse for current misconduct. However, it is also true that one great act does not ablate a lifetime of wickedness any more than one grand mistake erases a lifetime of virtue. Our God is a God of second chances and third and seventy times seventy if that's what you truly desire.

Except for the worst of the worst, even our penal system gives most people a second chance. Maybe they won't get a security clearance, handle money or whatever, but they don't lose all hope or opportunities for taking one or more from another. In my Faith, in my opinion, and in my belief system, everyone can and will get another chance. Some of them will not take it because they do not want to, but it stands extended to all. Over the past several years, I've registered where my deep-seated beliefs originated, and my belief on this comes from a song I heard many years ago. You may listen and watch below. The salient phrase is this: "many a life scarred and battered with sin can find a great change like the old violin. When our eyes are open our heart's touched from within by the touch of the Master's Hand." You can change if you let Christ change you. No matter how many mistakes you make, how worn you may feel, the touch of the Master's hand restores value to your soul. The problem with Karma is that it ignores mercy. The problem with Karma is that it reflects what we do but doesn't reflect what we truly desire. The problem with Karma is that it matters why we do a thing and that the only thing that we do that really matters is turning to Christ.