God\’s Get Out Of Jail Free Card

3 May, 2006. 400 words.

Here’s my theological thought for the day: In response to bad news, some people will say things like “don’t worry, God has a plan for you” or “oh well, it’s all part of God’s plan” or “it’s what God wants.” This sort of philosophy tends to come from a certain prominent persuasion of American Protestants which shall remain nameless.

Personally, I have a hard time following this logic. It seems to suggest that we are only automatons; we need not bother to think or imagine or feel anything. We need not bother to “try” at all. God has a plan, so we don’t need one. It’s sort of the theological equivalent of sitting around in your parent’s basement in your underwear, smoking dope and playing video games all day, waiting to win the lottery.

And there’s this rather troubling aspect: If God has a plan for us, why wouldn’t He let us know what it is? The only logical conclusions to that are, 1) there really isn’t a plan, or 2) He wants us to flounder around aimlessly until we blindly stumble onto His plan. Of course, the floundering could be part of His plan, too. So it all leads back to the unpleasant notion that we’re just mindless zombies.

I suppose when someone says “it’s part of God’s plan” they are really trying to say, “even though your life is completely screwed up, you’re a complete failure, you’ve lost your job, your dog died, and everything you do comes out wrong, you can take comfort in knowing that you’re following God’s plan to a tee. Congratulations!” I suppose that’s comforting for some people, but for me it’s a little depressing… and kind of an insult to my intelligence, quite frankly. In the aforementioned example, not only is God letting me screw up my life, but He also planned for me to screw up my life (He must big kick out of it). (Btw that was just an example, my life is fine.)

I like to think that I can learn from my mistakes and, with some effort, become better in the future. I also like to think I can avoid mistakes before they happen. But with “God has a plan” thinking, there’s no point in doing any of that — there’s no personal responsibility or consequences to think about. Sort of a spiritual “get out of jail free” card.

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