“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.”
I hear and see this phrase everywhere -- in church, from friends and family, and edited onto cute flower backgrounds to be use as screen savers. However, I have quickly learned that despite hearing these words, whenever something in my life changes, they are false.
If you would have asked me two years ago during my freshman year where I would be, I could have told you with beaming confidence. I would be pursuing a biology degree and eventually attending medical school, living with my best friends that I made during freshman year, and probably have already scored a great internship for the summer. Well you guessed it: that is definitely not how my life is. I still struggle with being able to decide whether I want to eat Chick-fil-a or Chipotle for dinner, yet alone having to soon decide what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Now I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and that we learn lessons from every experience, but to say that God is laughing at us is to suggest he is just waiting for the moments we screw up.
To say that God laughs at our plans is to suggest a Supreme Being lying in wait for just the right moment to derail us; a God who happily interrupts our plans and then chuckles at our efforts, when all along, we should have done ... what? Nothing? Should have sat, waiting with folded hands because it would be impossible to guess what the Almighty Destructive Force might have planned for us next?
To say that God laughs at our well-intentioned plans paints a picture of the most cruel God imaginable. Think of any scenario. Think of a family deep in the joyful preparation of holiday gift-buying for their family. Think of a horrific accident removing the grand orchestrator of this holiday out of their midst and into ICU. Think of less critical scenarios -- a car loaded with people and gifts suffering a flat tire in the middle of bumper-to-bumper traffic and unable to attend the celebration. Think of someone whose income has become so diminished over the past year that they struggle to keep up with their bills. Would you laugh at these situations? No, and neither would I.
Neither would God.
To think that God orchestrates everything from inconvenient mishaps to devastating catastrophes in order to teach us a lesson is to believe in a God without mercy or compassion. We live in a world of breakdown and chaos. Life happens, and we contribute to it. And sometimes while we're rushing around, things happen that could even have been prevented had we bothered to turn our mental GPS on and slowed down just a bit. And some things can't be prevented. The God I know is not a God who laughs when you fall down the stairs or burn your hand or even unknowingly offend a friend. God is understanding. God is Love.
Sometimes the unfortunate scenarios suffered by our family, friends, and neighbors don't happen for their spiritual benefit at all, but for ours. Sometimes the family on the side of the road with the flat tire is sitting there for us -- so that we will express God's Love and Understanding by upending our own plans in order to help them.
The faster we leave God out of these minor and major catastrophes of life, the faster we'll self-actuate and respond to the real pain of those who need us. And in doing that, perhaps we'll even earn a few divine credits for the same help down the road.
