In church today, the pastor spoke about how all things happen “on God’s time.”
Whether you believe or do not, how perfectly true is this?
We struggle and strain every day to make things happen on our time and yet — God, fate, karma, or whatever you may believe in — will insist on things happening exactly how and when they’re intended to.
…And when things don’t go like we want, we lose. Our. Minds.
How do we know that our rescheduled flight we are raging over wouldn’t’ve crashed?
Can we be sure if we would’ve left for work on time and hadn’t been 3 minutes late we wouldn’t’ve been badly injured in an accident?
And when we fell asleep reading in bed — was our body putting us to sleep to prevent an illness we would’ve otherwise had?
We tell our children “no” to many things they want because they simply don’t understand the consequences. Are we so sure God, the Universe, Karma etc aren’t telling us “no” because WE don’t understand?
It can be very hard to stay patient when something has went awry — especially when it’s something we really want.
But, adjusting our perspective, we can gradually grow more accepting of that which simply is.
Things happen as they happen.
Are they meant to be that way?
Is it God intervening? Or Fate? The Universe?
We may never know, but once something has happened, once we need to alter our path or timeline, all we can do is strive our best to accept it.
Follow for daily philosophical meditations.
These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”