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What If There Is No Plan?
I know a lot of people are convinced that G-d Has A Plan. For many people, this is a core part of their faith, and it is a comforting thought: no matter what happens, somehow it will all work out in the end. Because, G-d.
But what if there is no plan? After all, the Torah tells us that G-d acts — and reacts — in response to what we do and say. The text is full of examples: Adam and Eve, by eating the fruit, force G-d to react. Cain is only branded after he chooses to kill Abel. The Flood only happens because people choose violence; if they had not done so, then the Flood surely would have been averted. Avraham argues with G-d and changes His mind. So does Moshe.
G-d acting and reacting to mankind is not consistent with some divine plan. Instead, the Torah is telling me that G-d created this world, He put himself in human beings (but not in nature), and then He limited Himself (in both time and space) to allow mankind to have free will, to give us the opportunity to independently create and grow and love and – above all – choose.
The ability to choose means that we are free agents. G-d, admittedly, only gives us a few short years on this earth, so our potential is limited. But that hardly makes it any less potent: if anything, mortality makes us much more likely to take risks. And since our choices matter, He gave us the great power along with the great responsibility.
If G-d does not actually Have A Plan, then being religious is fraught with challenges and responsibilities. This kind of religious faith is no opiate; it drives us to action, not passivity. After all, if we can change G-d’s mind, then don’t we have an obligation to try to do so, on behalf of ourselves and our loved ones? Isn’t this an aspect of prayer, as well as good deeds of all kinds?
Am I wrong? If you think G-d has a plan, how do you know?
Published in General
There’s no contradiction.
If you insist that the word “plan” must mean “immutable and absolute plan fixed in all details,” only then is there a contradiction. But that departs from the English language no less than from the ideas of the Bible.
G-d’s plans in the Torah are few and unusual?
Genesis 3:15, the Abrahamic covenant, the Exodus, the giving of the Torah, the promise of a future prophet, the Exile and Return–few and unusual?
So . . . there is a plan?
Maybe you should rephrase the OP.
I can’t tell if you’re contradicting yourself, answering your own question in the negative after talking up the affirmative, or just being unclear on what you mean when you say “plan” and “A Plan.”
I may be wrong, but I always thought God’s plan was to give us an opportunity to do our best and the freedom to screw that up.
Aw, shucks. I was not referring to “suffering” but to goals falling short.
I am happy to be wrong in my understanding of Christian suffering!
I am a good parent.
I have a plan for my kids.
I tell them all the time that their purpose in life is to get to heaven. Everything I do for them is with that end in mind. Everything they should do should be with that end in mind.
Love the Lord with their whole hearts, minds, and strength of being, and love their neighbor as themselves, and live forever with the Lord in His mercy. That’s the plan.
I don’t claim to control them, or tell them who to marry or what choices they need to make as adults. The Lord has given me guidelines to teach them, but they need to find their own paths, since I don’t own them. But I know the plan, and so do they.
So here is sort of where I was coming from.
I have many friends who say, “X happened. But I am sure it is all for the best, since G-d Has a Plan.”
I think those people are in error. G-d has hopes and dreams for us. And history is supposed to have an arc. But all of that depends on us.
So I am rejecting the idea that “It will all work out because G-d has a plan.” I am fine with “G-d has hopes for us, and he wants us to get to X.”
Well, there is a whole lot in my religious tradition about whether the Lord in His divine nature can suffer, or only as a man, which of course does not make any sense to someone who does not accept Jesus as someone with both a divine and a human nature.
We speak of the Lord as suffering, or that sin hurts the Lord, but we also acknowledge that since He is perfect He cannot suffer in the sense that we can suffer. Language is sometimes constraining!
I can accept that when you speak of the divine goals falling short they can suffer, but that you do not mean that the Lord suffers, just as we can admire the sunrise but not mean that we think the sun actually is moving over the edge of the earth.
The same sort of reflections with which Augustine opens the Confessions.
A curse is not a plan.
These were all responses to what mankind did – mankind LEADS the dance!
Both sides have intentions, and G-d wants us to grow. I don’t consider that a plan.
In Catholic tradition we call Mary our Co-Redemptrix, because without her free will decision to cooperate with the Lord and bear His son, the Savior could not have come into the world.
I’d say the Lord leads, but He wants us to dance with Him.
I write these posts in order to help understand what I think – as well as to test the ideas on a skeptical audience (you!).
Note, though, that my OP was a question. I am exploring the limits of the idea, and you are helping with that!
Here is the contrast as I see it:
A: The Whole World is all part of a divine plan, and all the good and bad stuff along the way is part of that. This is true on a micro and a macro level. G-d will make sure it all works out in the end.
B: G-d has goals and plans – and mankind, as a full partner, sometimes comes through, sometimes confounds, and sometimes entirely misses the plot. G-d gave mankind the power to execute, and to derail. Thus far, though, we have never stayed on script. Which is one reason why we have so much back-and-forth with G-d.
I obviously am advocating B.
I like C, all of the above.
I don’t see the same contradiction you do.
However, thank you for bringing up these kinds of questions, because even though I don’t see it, the fact that you do makes it clear there is something in what you are saying even if I don’t see it, because you’re you. I find your thought very interesting and am always honored you share it with us.
That is how I see it.
Mama, I am honored, but I think you give me too much credit.
I am no exception to the human race: I get things wrong. I might have it ALL wrong. And I very much, deeply, appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts with y’all, and have them tested by the intelligent and thoughtful people of the Rico-community.
The nature of the Lord is love. You cannot force the loved one, and you want to support the loved one.
“If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.”
Wall-calendar wisdom. But it is very true.
I just learned something new. Did not know this detail about the Catholic faith. Thx.
Just to be clear, we also make clear that she needed Christ’s redemption as much as the rest of us, being entirely human and in need of redeeming.
I, too, enjoy these threads immensely, iWe. So thanks from Texas.
BTW – “y’all”? Spending time in the South lately?
“What if there is no plan?” — That is a genuinely tough question to ask. (Thanks for your boldness, @iWe.) It shakes many of us to the core. And may even cause some to run for cover from a vengeful lightning bolt. But if there is Truth out there (and I believe there is) then it is unafraid of tough questions asked sincerely.
It is honest, soul-searching discussions such as these here at Ricochet that keep me coming back and rejuvenate my hope.
Okay, rereading your original post: When I first read it, I was focusing on the design part of “the plan.” But upon rereading your post, I missed your larger point, and you’ve asked a different question, more along the lines of, Is G-d an architect who designs for infinite contingencies, or is G-d a playwright who writes the ending himself? Although of course I don’t know for sure, I’m guessing he is more architect than playwright. :-)
Perhaps the Lord is the director of an improv troupe, and he has an end in mind, and will let us keep improvising until we get there?
Exactly. :-)
I do indeed think God has a plan and that it is that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, who is Jesus Christ.
This plan was accomplished in the fullness of time when God sent his son, Jesus Christ, into the world.
God also gave us free will in order that we can love, and cooperate with his plan.
The difference for not bothering is a stark empty canvas, in contrast to a canvas full of the marks of thought and action.
I do think it would be possible for G-d to know the future, but I think He has chosen not to know; that is what allows us to live through our free will.
Almost every language has a plural “you”. This is the best equivalent English offers.
Please do not misunderstand me to think that G-d is not involved: He is clearly engaged in the lives of those who seek Him. And He clearly pushes us and talks to us, and will even engage in what we see as miracles on our behalf.
What is true on a micro level may also be true on a macro level.
But His goal in this effort is not to assure a given outcome, but to guide us toward holiness. It is a direction of travel, not a predetermined itinerary. And even with this, those who do not seek or have a relationship with G-d are in nature: they are independent. G-d leaves them alone, free will and all.
In Texas, y’all is singular, all y’all is plural.