Maybe you got cancer when you were only 34.
Maybe your husband died in Afghanistan, leaving you with 2 small kids to raise.
Maybe your house was mowed down by a tornado.
Maybe you lost your job and had to move back in with your parents.
And what do people often say?
“Well I guess that was meant to happen.”
“It was God’s will.”
“There’s a reason for everything! We just don’t know what it is yet.”
“I’m sure God has a plan.”
Hogwash.
God’s only plan is that you come here, play, enjoy your life, and go home when you’re done playing.
There is no supposed to happen. There is no divine plan. There is no destiny or fate.
Everything that happens to you while you are incarnated is a result of cause and effect.
“What about that tornado, Erin? I didn’t cause that!” You bought a house in a place that has tornados. Don’t blame God or the weather when one appears.
“What about cancer? That’s not very much fun. How is that ‘playing’?” Our bodies are subject to toxic overload. We abuse our bodies. Sometimes they get cancer. Sometimes you have to leave the playground before you want to.
“But in a previous article you said our guides make stuff happen to us to teach us, nudge us, and move us. Isn’t that a plan?” No that’s an intention, an attempt to help you navigate the maze of cause and effect. You don’t have to be taught, nudged or moved if you don’t want to be. It’s a suggestion based on what you desire in your life.
“But I always thought there was a reason that bad things happened. It helps assuage the pain of loss to believe it happened for a reason.”
No, there was no reason. God wasn’t sitting there with his iPhone saying, “Siri, please remind me to give Bill a heart attack tomorrow at 3:12am.”
That doesn’t mean you can’t ascribe a reason to the bad thing that happened to you. There’s nothing wrong with turning lemons into lemonade. There’s nothing wrong with using your experience to help others avoid it.
But you need to understand that once you’re here, you are subject to the effects of your actions, the actions of others, the weather, circumstances and just dumb luck.
The bee didn’t sting you because it was part of God’s plan. That tree didn’t fall on your car because God wanted it to. Your boyfriend didn’t dump you because God has another guy waiting for you.
All of those things happened because they were results of actions you set in motion with your own free will.
If you hadn’t gone to the picnic, the bee wouldn’t have stung you.
If you didn’t park your car under the tree during a windstorm, it wouldn’t have fallen on your car.
If you were more compatible with your partner he wouldn’t have dumped you.
No. Nothing that happens to you was divinely ordained. Not your wedding, your death, the birth of your child, your cancer, your heart attack, your birth defect. None of it. It all happens because stuff happens. And you’re not going to be able to control most of it.
“Gee, Erin, I don’t feel very safe then. I mean, if I knew the accident or tragedy was God’s will then at least I wouldn’t feel so vulnerable to chance.”
I know. I agree. It sucks. Knowing that you can get taken out of the game on a whim makes you feel vulnerable. You might have the answer to life, the universe, and everything and on your way to announce it on live television you could be struck by lightning and die. Not God’s will. Not anyone’s will. Stuff happens.
But that’s what’s so good about this world too. You aren’t being controlled, manipulated, punished, rewarded, or maneuvered into anything. Because of your free will, you can make this world a heaven or a hell for yourself.
You can’t control everything. You can get bitten by a poisonous spider in your sleep, and it’s game over.
So learn to appreciate the preciousness of your life. Learn to appreciate and be grateful for every moment you aren’t suffering or in pain. Because you never know what’s going to happen.
Enjoy that magical sunset. Smell those magnificent flowers. Take a walk with your love and hold hands. Stand on the mountaintop and admire the view. Appreciate the beauty in the world around you.
And remember that God loves you, but he’s not going to manage your life. It’s up to you to create and enjoy your life. And when you have to go home, go home with gratitude for your time spent here, not blame for how short it was, or how unfair it was, or how awful it was.
And when good things happen, that’s not God’s will either. That’s you reaping what you’ve sown, manifesting what you desire, riding a wave of awesome! That’s you enjoying the effect of previous causes.
Life is a joyride, filled with excitement and peril. It’s the maze filled with traps and treasures. It’s the journey, filled with villains and heroes.
God’s plan for you is a blank page and he’s giving you the pen. Write well, my friend. Write well.
