A friend of mine has had a really rough year. The doctors amputated her right leg a few years ago. She has been doing a pretty good job working her way back in the saddle. The past year, though, she has had disappointment after disappointment. Each time she has said God has a plan.
The past week I have been following the play-offs closely because I had a pair of front-row conference tickets on the line. Unlikely as it was, I had picked the final four, two, and Memphis to win. There was no assurance of winning it all. None the less, all the playoffs I held out hope those tickets were meant for me.
We live day to day with little control over our lives. Things happen we do not necessarily understand. We hold out hope they will end up our way. When they do we rejoice. When they don't we are disappointed.
Fate is a concept from the mythology of the Romans which attributed certain deities control over the lives of humans. Destiny is a similar concept that one's life-path is predetermined and unavoidable. Providence is the belief in the unseen hand of the Almighty directing the lives of people. Somehow, these answers don't cut it.
Sometimes I wonder if God really does have everything under control, or if this world just goes on its weird way and he sustains us. This viewpoint puts our emotional roller coaster in perspective. In my highest highs, God is glad with me; in the lowest lows, he hurts too. When I rest in him and face everything with the assurance he will sustain me the peaks and valleys aren't so dramatic.
