New Reminders: Meant to Be?

Whenever things just seem to click and everything falls conveniently into place, we say that it was “meant to be”.  We might think that God put everything into place, and we thank Him.  My question is: then how do you explain that, when I fly, the rule seems to be that if I have plenty of time between flights, the new gate is right next to the gate where I came in.  And, if the connection is tight, the new gate always seems to be way across the terminal?  Spoiler alert, I don’t know the answer.  I only ask the question.

I could rationalize and say that God may be making me rush between airport gates to keep my heart rate up, to keep my body from getting stiff from sitting through the long flight ahead.  On the other hand, I might conclude that God has nothing to do with it.  Sometimes we get a happy coincidence, and things work out perfectly, and other times we don’t.  That’s just the way the world works.  If things work out, should we automatically give God the credit.  Then, when things don’t work out, should we also think God is to blame?

We have all heard the phrase, “Everything happens for a reason.”  Some think it is a quote from the bible, but it’s not.  The closest thing to it is Romans 8:28, where the Apostle Paul writes: "We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.”  This seems to imply that we don’t need to ask why, we only need to ask what.  What is God’s plan for me?  It’s OK to ask questions when we need clarification of God’s will, but we don’t always need to know the answer, we just need to have faith, and humbly accept that God’s plans will work out, no matter what happens, if we faithfully love and serve Him.

The trouble is, that many of us are still much like we were when we were three years-old and first stated asking our parents, “Why do I have to do chores?”  And we were not happy when the exasperated parent came back with, “Because I said so!” meaning, but not saying, “because I know what’s good for you.”  This is God, the parent, saying, “Because I know what’s good for you, you can trust me, and if you do what I say, you’ll be fine.”  It was hard to trust our parents, but we learned to shut up and do what they asked us to do.  Sometimes, growing in faith means we need to shut up and do what God asks us to do.