It’s been said, “If you want to make god laugh, show him your plans.” For example, I planned to start this post with a quote from a respected sage, but instead I picked a sentence made famous by Woody Allen.
Most of my life has been spent planning. As a child, my family would regularly gather around the dinner table to ‘reconnoiter’—what we called painstakingly mapping out our schedule to the minute. That habit continues in my adult life, like making detailed daily itineraries for vacations with my wife. Most people like to plan. Planning affords us a sense of security, right? It’s a road map. A set of steps to follow. And the logic follows that if we stick to our plan to a tee, then the outcome will be exactly as we predicted. Therein lies the security, a sense of control.
The general thinking in our society is that good things happen to good people. If you work hard to follow the rules and play nice, then you’ll be rewarded (whether the reward comes from god, the universe, or something else is up to you). It’s an easy narrative to get swept up in, but my nice and happy life, like many others’, is filled with stories of failed plans, unintended consequences, and unrewarded rule-following. Am I not actually a good person? Am I not following the rules well enough? Or does what we get from life not actually relate to our actions?
A cynical approach to these questions is that our actions are meaningless. Our circumstances are random, and chance decides our fate. Control is a fallacy, security is an illusion, and plans are a waste of time (what a downer!). When I am feeling pessimistic, though, I try to remind myself that nothing is instantaneous. A tree cannot grow in a day. Our philosophical debates exist in one moment, but we must remember that the concepts we’re questioning reverberate across time.
Our lives are journeys, and each of our roads is filled with twists and turns and ups and downs. We make the choice of which direction we want to go and which turns we take, so we do exercise some control over our destiny. Plus, we certainly can foresee some consequences when we make these decisions, but so much is still beyond our control. Some call it luck or chance, while others believe that a divine being is guiding us. Both of these views, though, require faith.
Faith, in the traditional religious sense, is something that I’ve struggled with throughout my life. At times, the belief in the unknown seemed at odds with logic and reason. As an engineer, I rely on evidence and data, so there should be very little room for faith in my life. And yet, our brains are wired to find patterns and connect dots. We fill in the blanks in our life with faith. Some people take a “Jesus take the wheel” approach, which tends to be passive, and hope that things work out. I believe, though, is that we must be active in our faith. We have to keep trying to improve our lives knowing that it is worthwhile whether or not there is a guaranteed reward.
It is this approach to faith that I find myself most comfortable with. It is the understanding that nothing will improve if we sit idly by and the acceptance that things won’t always work out in the way we want. We must be active in our efforts to better ourselves and heal our world. We must have faith that when something goes wrong in our lives, we are able to try again.
As I reflect on the ups and downs of my own life, I am often reminded of the times that I stopped trying. The moments when I expected someone or something else to take care of my situation. I find myself regretting those moments much more than the moments when the results of my efforts weren’t what I was hoping for. Maybe it was an award rejection or a flat tire on vacation, but those moments of disappointment are much less bitter than the moments of apathy. When life gives you lemons, it is better to make lemonade than to throw them away. I reject the idea that it’s not worth trying just because something is in your way. I think the trying itself is important.
Our convictions and ideals are the plan we follow, our road map. We may never know if we’ll get to where we’re going, or if we’ll get any rewards, but life is a journey and not a destination. I think that whether you believe good things happen to good people, or that the universe is random and meaningless, we can all benefit from the faith that good effort is better than no effort.
James K. O'Connell 