Lucky or Blessed

Somehow this misty morning the words of Mary Chapin Carperter's song "I Feel Lucky" came to mind. She "stumbles out her rack" one morning and takes a look at the horoscope in the paper and discovers that "the stars are stacked against you girl, get back in bed." Have you ever felt that with without even looking at the print on the page?

John Denver in his sage-like way said that, "some days are diamonds and some days are stones." But alas our "pilgrim" in the prior song throws the paper in the garbage and professes, "I feel lucky...no Professor Doom gonna stand in my way...mmm I feel lucky today...no tropical depression gonna steal my sun away"

It seems that I hear a lot of talk about God's "plan." People often ask me if God has it all "planned." There is the classic debate about predestination and free will. If God has it all planned out where is our part in the plan and how much choice do we have? And where does "luck" come in?

To say God has a plan is fine if the stars don't end up being "stacked against you." The "gospel of success" that is professed so much by smiling TV faces is great for people who are "lucky." But the old story does not mention luck. There is a good deal in that old narrative about "blessing," but it seems that the blessings end up being showered upon the good and the bad just as the rain falls on the just and unjust.

So are we left with taking a chance on our daily horoscope? Is life really about luck, or is there a mysterious plan that God has encoded into the stars or our genes? It makes more sense to me to talk about God's "purpose" for our life rather than God's "plan." A plan is defined and set. A purpose is something longed for and offered.

I could not stay in this work of mine if I did not believe that God has a purpose for each human being, but I also could not stay in this "calling" if I believed that God has a set plan that is unalterable. If that is so, God is not doing so well...in fact God comes off either not caring much about us or as one who seems to be against us. There is just too much unfair stuff going on. Some talk of God's plan as if it is much like the paragraphs in the daily paper that warn us or urge us on.

God longs to bless us and does. Life, on the other hand, is full of mystery and freedom. In the midst of the amazing sunsets and hummingbird hoverings there comes earthquakes and cancer. So where is the "plan?"

I like what old John Wesley came up with as a compromise. He called it prevenient grace. Give up on trying to make spell-check approve "preveninet," it won't. Prevenient grace, Wesley believed, is God's grace that "lures" us toward God's purpose for us but does not compel us in that direction. Like a divine lover God longs for us to be whole, to walk the right way, to help God heal that which is broken. But we can go our own way. We have that choice. The stars are not locking us into a direction and neither is God.

Life also has its own free will. I am told that cancer is our body over-reaching itself in the rapid growth of cells...too much freedom. It seems that earthquakes are the result of plates that also have freedom. So is God simply "wishing us good luck" in the midst of it all? No...God is "in" the midst of it all offering us prevenient grace that is always out there just ahead of us, pulling for us, working as a "woman in labor" for us...wanting birth...and new birth for us.

Yes, the bad stuff happens and sometimes the stars seem stacked against us. But God is "always" for us. Life, which has it share of freedom, and we who are free may chose otherwise but God will not chose otherwise. Life may beat us down or we may be "lucky" but God is steadfast in offering blessing.

Good things happen in the midst of evil and resurrection occurs just like the flower that appears in the crack in the sidewalk. And yes, the reason for eternal life being a reality is that God is going to have to complete some of God's purpose in the next phase. Don't tell me when I do a child's funeral that it is part of God's "plan." God's purpose is for goodness and wholeness. I am weary of religious types who have to make everything "fit" by saying it is part of God's plan.

Mystery is part of God's plan. Blessing is part of God's plan. God has a purpose for us and the whole universe but it is not as apparent and simple as some smiling TV faces paint it to be. That is why it is called "faith." Alan Jones says it best when he says that the opposite of faith is not doubt, it is certainty.

So, "get out of bed" and step out into the place beneath the stars. Those stars do not hold your destiny, the God of the stars does. We do not know that destiny except to trust the old assertion: "our purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy God forever." You are blessed to be a blessing. If you feel lucky, that's great. If you feel blessed, that's better.
So as I often close...."blessings"
jody