The problem for me started in University back in the 80’s when I was studying Biblical History. The Bible is written, for the most part, as a time line going in linear progression from the beginning to the end of the world.
The idea that the people who were writing the Bible had was that God has a plan.
I had never thought of it that way before, like, a long term plan. Sure, God wanted me to be good tomorrow and to grow up and do something, but a plan for the universe?
When you think about it this is such a comforting thought. It is big, it is huge, God has a plan, who am I to think I can understand it... so when the river floods or the child dies, it is for a reason; God’s reason.; and serves a purpose.
See, on one level I understand this and have trouble coming up with working alternative ideas. But on the other... nothing makes me angrier than the sugary syrupy way we use this idea when talking to people in crisis.
Don’t worry, God needed another angel... really? God doesn’t have enough angels? God couldn’t “make” another angel? Angels are somehow composed of baby DNA? What kind of crap is this?
You have cancer? Don’t worry, it is part of the plan. It is? What kind of plan requires me to lose hair, get sicker than I have ever been, and statistically, probably, die a lot earlier than I expected?
So I know I have offended most people by now, but really, stop and think about it. The idea that there is a definitive plan in which everything fits just does not explain the reality we live in or adequately explain the pain and suffering. No being who is defined as love would use babies to make angels.
And it is not your fault. Even in seminary until recently, like I am trying to explain, that was the only conclusion which could be drawn.
So, religious studies in my undergrad was about time and plans but by the end of my grad studies it had started to be about relationship. Faith was about our relationship with God, church was about our relationship with God and each other while life was about managing all our relationships.
And for twenty years I have tried to put the two together, to varying effect. One of the places I got most often was to say, there is a plan, but stuff happens. That is a concept that works well with my observations of my own life, regardless of whether it is large or small. My plan for tomorrow is to go to the beach but it rains.
That is not really God, it is random. I get sick and lose a month of work it is not really part of the plan but a random piece of reality.
Then, this week, someone added a thought in a conversation that changes everything for me. I offer it to you now, knowing that I don’t really know how it is going to change my concepts, but knowing that it does. God does not plan, God invites.
So life is what it is, and we are invited to see it differently. Pain is awful and we are invited to take comfort in God. Tragedy strike and somehow we are invited to have hope.
There is no forcing, there is no plan, there is a journey and we are invited to join with the holy that is around and within it and live.
And you know what? Your arm did not break so that you would miss the piano recital because God wanted you to be at the superstore when the guy had a heart attack so you could do CPR. All those things just happened, and the reasons were obvious, don’t stand on the rocker to change the light bulb, and you were hungry. But we are invited to see how to make the best of every situation.
That is faith.
