I’m going to be very honest with you regarding this phrase. First, I’ve heard this, or something very similar to this my entire life. ‘God has a ‘perfect will’ for  me, but He also has a ‘permissive will’ (which is obviously a second or even third-rate lifestyle).

The idea here is that God created me with innate abilities, interests to use for His glory in His ultimate plan to redeem the universe from Satan’s dominion.  (related article is Fundamentally Powerless) And as long as I trust and obey God, then my life will be optimized. If, however, I dare make my own choices, (rebel against God), then my life will be shipwrecked.

So I want to explore this claim that ‘God has a plan for my life’ using life observations from folks that I know or have known very well, to see if this really seems valid.

But before I do, here is a pretty straightforward question – ‘Did God create chance in the universe?’  And by chance, I mean true randomness that God does not know the outcome. I realize that by definition of God, most folks would say something like, ‘No, God is sovereign and in control of all things.’  To which I then have to ask – ‘How far are you going to take this idea?’ And if God really is in absolute control of all, then given the events I’m going to outline for you next, is He really a loving God worthy of my time, loyalty, and love?

So, here goes. Other than the last item, I have personally observed every one of these events.

My ex-wife loves and trusts God, attends church regularly, lives a healthy lifestyle, but here is what I personally observed happened to her over the years. . .

• Years ago, the week we moved out here to Colorado from Minnesota, she gently slid into another car at the bottom of an icy hill. The drivers of that car assured her there was no harm, then turned around and sued her for $50,000.00. (Insurance recognized these two folks and settled for a much smaller sum)
• She was on her way to visit her niece in the hospital, when an illegal alien slammed into her car from behind, shoving her car into the car in front of her. She suffered whiplash and stress from doing a good deed.
• She was riding her bicycle, hit a curb the wrong way, and fell breaking her wrist. She tried to call both myself and my son for help, but neither of us picked up, and she ended up walking home holding her broken wrist with her other hand. A kind soul did bring her bike home, but I ignored his attempts to get my attention at the house thinking he was a solicitor, so my precious former wife literally walked home several blocks away with a broken wrist.
• My Dad (who is 80) recently took an extremely bad fall, breaking his arm requiring 7 pins, and a plate on his humerus bone. Of course the arm he broke was the one he uses, and he was at a point that he couldn’t even push himself up out of a wheelchair for about a month. This is ongoing, and he may need a second surgery to really repair his arm.
• My ex-wife, contracted cancer in one of her breasts; fortunately it was stage zero, however, it still required an operation to ‘core’ the cancer cells out.
• My father-in-law lost his precious wife to a sudden brain aneurism. She had been a fit lady who hiked regularly, etc…and yet. . .poof! She died suddenly.
• A current family member, who is a missionary, serving God full-time has suddenly been diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. The doctors are very concerned that it has not spread into the lymph-node system. But currently, this loving mother could die very quickly leaving behind her husband and two little children.
• Paul the Apostle suffered many shipwrecks, was beaten, and jailed multiple times. He didn’t always get to eat regularly.

Okay, you get the point. These folks, as far as I know are all very sincere, devoted followers of Jesus, and yet, according to this belief, these events were all part of God’s plan for their lives.

And what about Job? And what about his family? God apparently thought it was more important to win a bet with Satan than to be loyal, loving, and care for a man who God Himself recorded was very upstanding and trusting.

So I have to ask. . .given that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, was allowing Job to live a miserable existence, kill off his family, and means of making a living all part of God’s optimal plan for Job’s life?? And was being killed by invaders God’s best plan for the lives of Job’s sons and daughters?

So putting these observed events together with these two biblical events I’ve noted, is God even trustworthy?  What’s the point of trusting in and obeying a god that will ‘allow’ or ’cause’ these kinds of circumstances to enter the lives of loyal innocents?

And for pity sake, please, please, please don’t try to defend God with the rational of ‘God is trying to improve your character’ or ‘God is bringing these things into your life so you will learn to trust and love Him more.’

That, my friends, is utter cow dung.

From my personal observations, which I freely admit is not hard factual evidence, it strikes me that if God really does have a plan to use people, then when He’s done ‘using them’ He essentially throws them away. The protective bubble pops, the ‘hand of God’ or whatever verbiage used to indicate that God is protecting me vanishes. POOF!!

But I don’t believe this is even true to begin with.

It is another lie told by ‘religionists’ to try to make sense of the randomness of life. Here’s my take on this in two words. . .

Shit Happens.

We try to build up common sense practices to protect against the shit, but sometimes it still randomly happens. And to add a further lie about bad circumstances as being part of the Divine plan for your life, to improve you, is synthetic theological bullshit.

One last thought, if you are more offended by my language than by the fact that you have been lied to, then you might just be a fundamentalist!  🙂