Divine Plan

I have always found it personally irritating and professionally troubling that persons in the church seem to be so enamored with the notion that all things happen as a part of God's divine plan for each of us. Facebook is filled with daily posts that decry the troubling aspects of life as some passing occurrence, as "God's will." If we believe in and trust God, the posts seem to suggest, then we will tolerate the turmoil and chaos of life as part of that plan. If bad things happen...God's plan. If good things happen...God's plan. People of faith have only to live out their lives as part of God's plan.

 

Now, I have read Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Faith. I find the concepts challenging and internally cohesive, yet flawed by the notion of a personal God, like a human. This deity "decides" who is cursed and blessed, who is fated for eternal salvation and who is doomed. The Reformed Church movement still holds to some of these basic notions, but I find the idea of a God who arbitrarily decides the fate of human salvation troubling at best.

 

Firstly, believing that salvation is fated limits the possibility of God's Holy Spirit being at work in each and every one of us. Secondly, the concept allows persons who are fortunate to believe that their advantages are of divine origin. The corollary, of course, is that those who are unfortunate also find themselves suffering at God's will. It is God's will, therefore, that some suffer while others take advantage. In the system that upholds a divine plan as the course of human events, the fortunate should be fortunate, by divine will,  and the unfortunate should be left unfortunate. Human beings should morally do nothing about the situation because "it is God's will." Moreover, human beings can do nothing about configurations of what might be construed as God's will because God is more powerful than humans.

 

I am aware that most who simply post Facebook phrases and pictures do not tend to think through the extended theological ramifications of a "divine plan." I am just concerned that it seems to large a part of our cultural and theological mantra. The mantra can be especially troubling when it is meant as comfort. I have heard it twice recently. The first occasion was the death of a person that I know in the community. A person passed at the visitation that preceded the memorial service. A well-intentioned person said, "I know it's hard, name-of-person, but it is all part of God's plan. You will see your husband again." The other was an on-line discussion of social equality. The person with whom I was discussing the need for social justice had just called me a "socialist," and added, "Did you ever think that the way things are is part of God's plan?"

 

Ummmm, no, I certainly have not. Nor will I. Ever.

 

So, what do you think? Is there a "divine plan," and does it mean that human will is negligible at best and meaningless in reality?