Right as Rain

In reality we are chosen. We don’t pick, as much as we are picked. Before we are born, the universe is favorably conspiring us toward a certain end, one we will spend much of our lives discovering. Even though it will feel like we are the one choosing. The real choice, perhaps, is choosing to be chosen.

What we are naturally inclined to enjoy and be good at was not chosen. We discover it. “It” is already in there. And when did it get put in there? And who put it in there? Both wonderful questions. For if the world is created, it, and we, are creative!

There is a powerful force behind things, what some call the Invisible Hand, some the Universe, some God. The terminology, at this point, we won’t get caught up in. All mean essentially the same thing, there is a power beyond this place, typically benevolent.

Let’s resist the urge to define it further at this point, and suffice it to say that this “Higher Power” is even willing us toward a preferred cosmic end. That we are part of a grand narrative, a big picture where all the broken pieces of life will somehow be aligned.

We intuitively want this. We do. We can sense deep within us the need for this story. We can sense the drama is real. We are part of it, on a hero’s journey. The decisions we make matter. There is Something orchestrating in, with, and under our story.

Now we do tend to presume our story is the only story, or at least the most important.  Still it is the one we are held responsible for. We can not know how the other stories intertwine with ours, nor how they will all fit together in the master plot.

We don’t need to!

We are given enough. Clues. Premonitions. Insights. Validations. Vindications we are on the right path. It would only make sense that doing the thing we were created to do would feel right. Not easy, but right. That it would be in some way self-evident.

It is. And it does feel good. It does feel “right.” Right as rain. The power of the universe is aligned behind us. The creative force behind the universe is behind us. We can feel it! It’s exhilarating, terrifying, and downright fun all at the same time. Thanks be to God.

And yet, on the human side of living this reality out, is an awkward transition into reality.  It is like coming down from the mountaintop experience to our first day in the office. What we experienced with such clarity & excitement up there, well, is gone.

Or at least hard to find at the moment. We stumble around looking for our next steps. We move a little this way, a little that way. We guess here, predict there. We get to what feels like another dead end. What felt so right and clear now seems dark and obscure.

We wonder if those moments of clarity and vindication ever even happened.

Were we so desperate for validation that we made up a story for ourselves? That’s what we think at least. We get to a point rather quickly that best case our once certain faith was simply our way of dealing with a dead-end in our life because we felt stuck.

Stop! Breathe.

What appears as a supposed dead end now does not mean we were led astray then. It was not some false inspiration that led us here. Just think of Moses who must have certainly felt that way -  staring at the Red Sea with a million rescued refugees behind him. We know how that turned out.

Did you expect it would be easy? ;-) Enjoy the ride!