Letter to the Editor: This is not God’s plan
The Rev. Sandy Webb has served as Rector of Church of the Holy Communion in Memphis since 2013. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)
Letters to the Editor
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The tragedies of the last two weeks raise an important question for every Memphian to answer: What is God’s plan for us?
The Prophet Jeremiah introduces us to the idea of God’s plan. He writes: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
We can find comfort in the idea that God has a plan for us. If God has a plan, then we have a purpose for living, a roadmap to follow, and an inexhaustible source of strength.
But, where does that leave us when life does not go according to God’s plan? How do we make sense of people dying too young? Of people killing other people? How do the tragic events of the last two weeks fit into God’s plan?
In short, they don’t.
Jeremiah says that God’s plan is for our welfare and hope. When we are not experiencing hope and well-being, then we are not experiencing God’s plan. The events of the last two weeks are not God’s plan.
In a way, nothing in our lives has gone according to God’s plan. God’s plan for us was Eden. God’s plan was us living together with him, shaded by the tree of life, never knowing the taste of death or fear, shame or grief.
The whole human story is the story of people departing from God’s plan. But, it is also the story of God responding to them in love.
God responds to us first with the acts of love recorded in the Hebrew scriptures — through the covenant, the law, the judges, the prophets and the kings. Then, the Christian tradition holds, God continues to respond with the acts of love recorded in the New Testament — through Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the brave faith of the earliest Christians.
God has never given up on humanity. God never will. And, neither must we.
Evil may interrupt God’s plan, but evil cannot change it. The destiny of the whole created order is its reconciliation with God and our reconciliation with one other. We help bring that reality about when we respond to acts of hate with acts of love and when we choose to stand in the face of fear rather than running away from it.
The Rev. Sandy Webb
Sandy Webb has served as Rector of Church of the Holy Communion in Memphis since 2013.
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