As I write this I am finishing all of
my work for the week. It is Weds morning. My kids are with their
grandparents for the rest of the week. My significant other is off
work. What a glorious time it would be at Kouchibouguac frolicking in
the waves and reading on the sand...
But it is raining. People say it will
rain all week. These people have no souls.
Do you, like me, ever find life not
working out how you planned? Ever wonder if the universe has it in
for you? Have you ever wanted to go to the beach without your kids
for once and had it rain all week? Sure you have. Were you ever
disappointed by it? Sure you were. Ever wonder about the ontological
significance to whether predestination or omniscience is to blame for
the rain fall? Sure you have... you just didn't realize it.
Why is it that we spend so much time
worrying about why things happen, especially the things that are so
out of our control that we cannot possible affect them? That big
sentence up there, it means, did God do this or was it supposed to
happen this way for a reason, and we all say that from time to time.
We all ask, Why? But seriously, how am I going to answer the question
as to why it is raining this week, and why do I bother struggling
with it?
So, for just a second, allow me to play
the part of the universe, of God, of the one on the other end of this
questioning and ask you a question. Is the beach the only thing worth
doing? Why for once don't you just roll with the punches?
How is this for a twist on the book of
Job or on Jesus famous speech about considering the flowers of the
field – those passages intended to get across that old chestnut of
wisdom, you have to roll with the punches.
You might recognize here that some of
us have bigger problems than rain on a beach day. Some of us have
very real problems like lightning striking the house and burning it
to the ground, or an inoperable tumour, or the sudden downturn of the
economic picture making your job redundant. In those cases we usually
ask the same question – why is this happening to me? What did I do
to deserve this? Why would God allow this? I think you understand
where I am going.
If I could only impart one bit of
wisdom on my children, this is it... Roll with the punches. If you
want to be even cuter about it, then if life hands you lemons go
ahead and make lemonade. If I wanted to be more philosophical about
it I would offer this:
There is no pattern to the universe
except the natural unfolding of events. Nowhere in the Bible,
Qua-ran, Wisdom of Buddha or anywhere else does it suggest that the
book of life is written from the beginning and ever unchanging. We
made that up. Sure, there are short term plans in those books, God
decides the save the Israelites from Egypt and raises up Moses to be
a leader, so the story goes. But that is a 40 year sequence, not the
point of the universe.
What matters is that random things
happen and faith, courage, and sheer force of will are required to
roll with the punches. Not only that, but we should stop making so
many plans. Wake up in the morning, see what happens, and do what
feels right. If we lived that way then the rain would not matter
nearly as much.
It is not raining today for any divine
reason. It is because of air currents, the moons pull on the oceans,
the circulation of water vapour around the world; and that system
does not care one whit whether I want to go to the beach or not. Of
course, it is good for the flowers.
- Brett Anningson is the Protestant
Chaplain at the University of New Brunswick, a freelance writer and
blogger, editor of Arabella: Canadian Art and Architecture and is
passionate about finding ways to understand faith in modern culture.
