Sometimes God's plan isn't right there. It's not in plain sight, it's surely not easily detectable. Quite frankly, there are times when you question what it is entirely.
I write this just finding out that a beautiful, godly family from my hometown had their second teenage son diagnosed with cancer in the past year.
And it's stories like these. Unbelievable, tragic, heart-wrenching stories that make you question this "God's Plan" thing a little more.
It's unimaginable losses.
It's a split-second timing, if something would have happened just a little bit later, this wouldn't have happened.
It's the one in a million type accidents.
It's rare genetics.
It's the diseases that somehow have no cures in our heavily modernized society.
It's hatred and war and the implications of both.
It's in the midst of these things that the idea that God has a plan for our lives becomes the most hazy. It becomes hardest to believe.
How does God's plan involve hurting good people?
And those without faith will use this to make you question God's existence entirely.
And you'll feel weak and unsure.
But you'll want to believe in something, so you believe in this:
You believe that the pain you feel from experiencing something like this, or knowing that someone is, you believe that that pain is important.
You believe that the story matters. That the tragedy of the story reaches other people. You believe that it reaches into their soul and gives them a perspective like they've never seen before.
You believe that God is using you, that your hurt has a purpose.
You believe that things will get better because of it.
You believe that your loss will cause others to gain something, something valuable.
That maybe people will stop and think a little longer.
Maybe they will count their blessings a little extra today.
Maybe they will find a reason to give.
Maybe they will let go of trivial frustrations.
Maybe they will say a prayer.
Maybe they will drive a little slower or be a little kinder or smile at ordinary moments.
Maybe they'll tell people how much they appreciate them, just because.
And maybe God's plan is exactly this, using his power to show us greatest gift a little clearer: the gift of existing at all.
