One of my grandmothers had a particularly robust view of God’s will. I struggled with its idiosyncrasies from an early age. It went along the lines that bad things are God’s will so it cannot be changed, and as good things are bound to fail soon it never pays to be optimistic. Generally, I have been one of those fortunate people who sees the best in situations.
The recent assault on Framlingham by flood waters following rainfall that was unusually heavy for Suffolk has caused many of our friends and neighbours a great deal of personal suffering and cost. The loss of the ground floor of the United Free Church building for the near future is insignificant when compared with the problems faced by folk at home or trying to earn their living. God’s Will? His Divine Plan? Some would say so but really, to me that is a distortion of what I have always seen as God’s Will for us, for me. There is a sense of fatalism, of apportioning blame that I cannot indulge in when it comes to God.
Recently I read an article about the effects of global warming and rising sea levels on the South Pacific Island of Tuvalu, originally known as the Ellice Islands. The Australian Government are making provision to admit people from Tuvalu, and other islands at risk, over the coming years. Granny would have said it was God’s will that the South Pacific Islands disappear; I prefer to see God’s will in the reaction of the Australian Government and their welcome to people in need. I dare say there is truth in both ways of looking at things.
God’s Will is a complicated subject. I think it is convenient but simplistic to simply ascribe to God what is, in part at least, an outcome of the activities of humankind over many years enabled by the freewill we have from God. In that sense, yes, it is him but so too are the myriad of good things that come from the latitude he has given us in everything.
Three inches of rain in not long – God’s will or a rare meteorological phenomenon? Both, but God’s part is permissive, not causal – just as he is permissive and encouraging when humans respond to one another in supportive love, even at international level.
A Prayer
God of nature, the elements and all that happens in the world, grant us the grace and wisdom to respond in love when people need our strength to lift them up. Help us to exercise our freewill in the wisest way we can, always asking for your guidance and not ignoring it when it comes.
Be with those who lives are turned upside down when things happen in nature that shock us and destabilise us. You are our God; always there, never controlling but always loving. Amen.