God has a plan...

"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that he is even infinitely above it."
Benjamin Franklin

"God has a plan..." My mother, my ex-wife, and others

A weakness in human physiology that has been exploited and profited from for centuries is the genetic predisposition to worship and surrender our lives to the hands of an unknown higher power. I am not against faith, or religion properly practiced. However, I believe it is contrary to the pursuit of happiness to use God or anything else as a crutch to escape the realities of your position in life. People place their lives and situation "in the hands of the Lord", not usually from their faith in their respective deity, but because they lack the initiative or courage to take control of their own lives. They also lack the integrity to accept that most of the bad things in their life did not happen by chance or fate, but are the results of bad decisions.

I don't know if God has a plan for me, but if he does, it is for me to make my life better by my own actions. I can't wait for divine intervention or for things to run their course. In my opinion, if God truly had an active role in everyday life, babies would not die of cancer and Jimmy Swaggart and Ted Haggard would not be millionaires.

The point I am trying to make, all religious preferences aside, is that there is a gigantic lack of personal responsibility and accountability in today's world. People absolve themselves of their personal responsibilities by giving the blame of their life's outcome to God, or blaming the color of their skin, or blaming their parents. They release the accountability for their own shortcomings, blaming bad luck, bad government, or bad genes. Aggressive pursuit of accepting and correcting one's negative behaviors is just as important, if not more so, than actively pursuing positive, productive goals.

The situation you are in is only the responsibility of one person. You alone have control of what you do and what you don't do. The basic concept of this is Cause and Effect. The results of your actions, good or bad, will produce a result, good or bad. If you choose to be happy, and take actions to make it happen, it will. If you choose not to take action, then you will remain the same.

Newton's First Law of Motion states, "Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it."This is the same concept that applies to your life. If you do not exert an external force, your life will remain in its constant state. God will not apply this external force on his/her own. You have to do it.

I am not God, but I have a plan. My plan is to be as happy and successful as I can by my actions, without hurting others. I know that this will also involve the recognition and acceptance of my mistakes as my own failures and inadequacies, not the failures of others. Or God.