“All nature is but art, unknown to thee; All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good: And, spite of pride in erring reason’s spite, One truth is clear, whatever is, is right” (Epilogue I)

(Alexander Pope. Essay on Man and Other Poems: By Alexander Pope – Illustrated (p. 16). Kindle Edition.)

“He (Lincoln) realized that the idea that God takes sides leads to narrowness and, at worst, bloodshed. It was important, in his view, for humans to believe in a Divine Being but equally important for them not to pretend to understand God’s purposes.” (David Reynolds, Abraham Lincoln in his Times, (p. 54), Kindle Edition)

Another life lesson that I have come to learn in my short life is this: the path we hope for and the path that is presented to us usually are not one and the same. For example, I had thought I might attend seminary back in 1991. In fact, I had started the paperwork to begin that journey. But then my life’s journey took a turn that rambled this way and that for nine years before I could come back to my seminary studies. Was this G-d’s plan for me? It was a question I struggled with for some time – until I realized that some of my most formidable life experiences happened in those nine years.

Abraham Lincoln once recited the above words from Pope’s poem An Essay On Man to a friend who asked him about his religious views. Lincoln recited these verses from memory, words that come at the very end of Epilogue I. Reynolds goes on to say about Lincoln: “The best one could do, he (Lincoln) realized, was to attempt to align good works with one’s sense of justice, without ever being assured that one knew God’s plan.”

We cannot always or ever completely know G-d’s ways, or G-d’s plans in our lives. All we can do is trust that G-d is in control, and then learn from the experiences we encounter. Every experience, every failure, every success, every pothole can be a lesson that will lead us down the path G-d always intended, realizing that whatever path we are on, is the right one. As Pope writes: “One truth is clear, whatever is, is right.”

Pastor Dave