Yesterday night, while at the home of some friends of mine after volleyball practice, I watched a movie that was very light and amusing, and in at least one way very thought provoking. The movie, “Now You See Me,” had to do with sleight of hand and deception, along with the premise that sometimes people engage in plans that require a long amount of time and significant risk to come to fruition. The plan at the heart of the movie was the vengeance of a son for those responsible for the death of his father, a quest for vengeance that involved an ancient illuminati-like society and the recruitment of four magicians to serve as the agents of that revenge, along with achieving a position of responsibility so as to make it an inside job. Such a conspiracy feeds into the sort of mindset that people have of the whole world being under the sway of a small group of elites, while everyone else is merely distracted and entertained and deceived.

It ought to come as no surprise that I am a fond student of divine providence, the subtle and indirect means by which an omnipotent God works out His will while respecting the free will of His creation [1]. I often wonder what sort of design and plan that God has for my life, to be worked out through the subtlety of action. I am aware of my ignorance concerning higher matters that are beyond my competence to understand, and I only hope that such plans as are for good are beyond my incompetence and my skill at mucking things up and making my life complicated and stressful and full of drama. I can only hope that the good that is to come in my life does not depend on my own skills at making it come to pass, as those skills are very modest indeed.

It is at times a tempting but very scary urge to see the fleeting glimpses of design in one’s own life. On the one hand, we do not want to ascribe too much to God’s hands that is in fact our own responsibility or our own doing as human beings. We cannot view the accidents of time and chance as being evidence, for example, of divine judgment, except to note that death is a common fate that overtakes us all. Likewise, it can be tempting to overestimate the sort of signs in what we see and hear around us, seeking reassurance in our own doubtful decisions in doubtful and dubious ways. Nevertheless, it is clear that our lives are shaped by a design that is not our own. We may ascribe this design to malign forces and combinations, or we may ascribe it to a divine providence whose ways are inscrutable but ultimately beneficial. Whatever we do, though, those of us who examine the course of our lives recognize that so much does not go according to our own plans, and that we ourselves are incapable of knowing all that is necessary to ensure a positive outcome in our ventures and plans and hopes and wishes.

Faith is therefore necessary at some level to act in any way that is beneficial and productive. Our faith can so easily be misplaced. We may put our faith in ourselves, seeing ourselves as more competent than others around us, or seeing ourselves as wiser and more understanding than others. We may put our trust in family or friends, in governments and institutions made of fallen and imperfect human beings who will inevitably let us down in some fashion because we will ask too much of them, meet them at the wrong time, and because they are no more perfect or capable than we are. We cannot expect of our peers what we cannot do for ourselves, though we ought to be alert to the wisdom and insight that can be provided by others who have a bit more experience and knowledge in certain areas and a different perspective that can help us because of its distance from our concerns and problems. Even so, such advice as we receive from others still must be weighed and balanced, and if we take bad advice, as is sometimes the case, we are still responsible because we heeded it.

Divine providence is a different matter. There, even though we are responsible for the deeds that we do, we are not the captains of our ships or the masters of our fate. We are not helpless and without importance, nor are we without responsibility, but we are acting while a greater design is being brought into existence beyond our knowledge and often beyond our imagination. It is hard to know when aspects of that plan and design will become evident, or if we will long languish in ignorance, consumed by our doubts and worries and anxieties about that which is beyond our control. In many ways, a belief that things will turn out well, a belief that is carried out in practice, is necessary for those good things to happen. We must prepare our hearts to receive the blessings that God has for us, a task which is not always an easy one, but which is a worthwhile one. Let us therefore prepare our hearts, so that we may see the fruits of the plans for good that God has for us.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/divine-providence-in-the-life-of-nathan-the-upser/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/divine-providence-in-the-book-of-ruth-part-one/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/divine-providence-in-the-story-of-naaman-the-syrian/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/a-meditation-on-the-divine-will/