I wish I could know what was going to happen in the next few weeks or, at the very least, in the next few days. My life would be much more comfortable if I didn’t have to guess about the future. I suspect there are many who feel the same.
However, I have some bad news for you and for myself. “It ain’t gonna happen!”
Life isn’t predictable and what happens isn’t something that can always be ascertained through logic. In some ways, we have to live as if we can logically deduce what is going to happen next. Otherwise, we would be paralyzed because of constantly watching for new clues to add to the data we use to make our decisions. We live based on predictions about what’s going to happen next. While our prediction methods have gotten better, there is still a lot of room for variability that leaves us uncertain about the immediate future.
Rainer Marie Rilke said it succinctly:
“After all, life is not even close to being as logically consistent as our worries; it has many more unexpected ideas and many more facets than we do. My god, how magnificent life is precisely owing to its unforeseeability and to the often so strangely certain steps of our blindness. Life has been created quite truthfully in order to surprise us (where it does not terrify us altogether).”1
Life isn’t ordered logically. And the magnificence of life is that we can’t tell what’s going to happen next. Think about it. If we could accurately predict everything that was going to be happening in life, life would be boring in the extreme. Life is intended to be full of surprises, that’s a part of the meaning of being alive.
Of course, the unpredictability of life can also be terrifying. When things are pleasant, we are happy, when things are hurtful or even devastating, we think it would be better if we didn’t have surprises in life. Unfortunately, the good and the bad, births and deaths, joys and terror come mixed in life and we can’t pick and choose which we will have the most of.
I love it when there are reports of a major health breakthrough that might mean the end of certain types of cancer and a longer, more enjoyable life for all of us. I could take that kind of news every day. All of us probably feel the same. There are those people who want only the good news and they try and cover up anything that isn’t what they consider pleasant news or news that doesn’t fit their idea of how things are.
At the same time, there are those who dwell on the terror aspect of life. They will tell others that disaster is waiting just around the corner. If anyone is feeling good about something, these people will be sure to undercut whatever hope they have. When presented with good news they will look for the dark side.
I think the gospel offers an alternative to going one way or the other, into expectations of never-ending joy and expectations of continuing disasters. The scriptures tell us that God is in control. The scriptures also tell us that God loves us. Whatever is happening, there is a loving God who is watching over all of humanity.
This doesn’t mean we can expect everything to be to our liking. Illness and death will still come to people who are Christian as well as to people who aren’t Christian. But in the midst of that, God is still present to support us and help us through whatever’s happening. We don’t have to face it alone. At times we may feel God has forsaken us. (Even Jesus on the cross cried out asking God why God had forsaken him.)2 But the promise is that God is with us. God’s Holy Spirit sustains us through the difficult times.
Life isn’t logical from our perspective. That doesn’t mean life is pure chaos. The key thing to understand is our “perspective” is what makes it hard to make sense of why things happen. From a perspective we can’t attain, there is order in all of creation.
God is with you. In the midst of illness, God is with you. In the midst of joy, God is with you. In the midst of death, God is with you. There is nowhere you can go where God won’t be present if you are willing for God to be present. (Actually, God is present whether you “will” it or not. If you are unwilling, you remain unaware of that presence.)
So, look around. See all the people running back and forth, trying to make sense of a world that’s bigger than any human can grasp. And take a deep breath and relax. God is with you and God can make sense of all that is happening.
Ross T Lucas 