This morning I was supposed to board a flight to Chicago. The plan was to travel all the way from my home in Ireland to Wheaton College in Illinois. I was excited to attend the very first gathering of the Inklings Project Fellows, a diverse group of international colleagues united by the common purpose of creating and teaching Higher Education courses inspired by the life and work of the Oxford Inklings. Being involved with this new programme is an honour, and has provided me with a remarkable stimulus to draw deeply on the life and work of Belfast born C. S. Lewis in my professional work.
Friends, I didn’t catch that plane. Instead, I am writing these words in my kitchen at home in County Antrim, recovering from a nasty infection that made transatlantic travel a complete non-starter.
There was nothing I could do except cancel my trip. I have to be honest – this turn of events is disappointing. What were the chances of the timing? We’ll come back to this question later. But in the meantime, in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18 Paul encourages Christians to ‘give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’. I am thankful today for three things: 1) I am steadily on the mend; 2) my hosts at the Inklings Project and my family and friends have been incredibly kind and gracious; and 3) I know there will be other opportunities in the future.
This unexpected last minute change of plans got me thinking more broadly about those occasions in our lives when things happen that are simply beyond our control. I haven’t written a new post for a while now, but I hope that sharing these reflections will prove helpful.
Sometimes, just one turn of events can change a person’s life utterly and they are left reeling. I can think of several friends whose lives have been turned upside down by the visitation of unexpected tragedy. Each day they must get up and live their lives. Each day they look to God and acknowledge Him as Sovereign. But most likely, this painful path is not one they would have chosen. We must remember to pray for so many friends who are living through suffering.
On the other hand, there are many happy things in life that are also beyond our control. We call these blessings. Take our friends, for example. I’ve heard it said, light-heartedly, that although you can’t choose your family, you can choose your friends. And yet, as C.S. Lewis writes in his book The Four Loves, all the details of our life circumstances, including the identity of our friends, are finely calibrated by Someone Lewis calls ‘a secret Master of the Ceremonies’. As Lewis points out, just a couple of years’ difference in our dates of birth, or in the geographical location of our homes, or in our choice of university might mean that we would never have met in the first place at all.
Lewis argues that ‘for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances’. For just as Christ has chosen us, so he has chosen our friends. Friendship, Lewis explains, ‘is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others’. The circumstances in which we find ourselves each day, and the people we have in our lives are, as Lewis sees it, no accident. They are unique and Divinely appointed and part of a beautiful greater purpose.
Scripture teaches us that God oversees the bigger picture of our lives, and that, in inexplicable mercy and grace, He weaves together each of our circumstances, whether large or small. Ephesians 2 verse 10 tells us we are ‘God’s masterpiece’. The Greek word translated here as ‘masterpiece’ is poiēma. I love the idea that we are God’s poem. We must trust Him to complete His good work in us, even when we can’t understand why things in life might work out just as they do.
Isaiah 55 verses 8-9 put it like this:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Now, back to that question: what were the chances of the timing of my cancelled trip? In truth, there were no chances at all. For as Proverbs 16 verse 9 puts it: ‘We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.’
