Tracing God's Design
/In this Sunday’s reading from Isaiah, we see how God moves in someone’s life, even without his knowing it. God works through Cyrus, King of Persia, who, as my Bible footnote says, “liberated the Jews, permitting them to return to their native land and to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple.” God does a lot for Cyrus – subdues nations, opens doors, gives him his title – even though “he knew me not.” Cyrus doesn’t need to be aware of God working in his life for God to work in his life. As people reflect on all that has happened, they see how God has cared for them despite the mistakes that exiled them in the first place. All can see that God is God and “there is no other.”
This kind of subtle care feels familiar because it’s how God tends to work in my life too. In the moment, I might not see how God is present. Later, though, after things work out, or don’t work out but something entirely new and unforeseen emerges, I can see God’s design. I can look back on events and make meaning from what happened, and this meaning-making is as much the work of God as the circumstances themselves.
This puts me in mind of a podcast episode from the TED Radio Hour called “Debbie Millman: Designing Our Lives.” The episode explores how design functions in our lives, including how we design happiness. According to psychologist Dan Gilbert, there are two kinds of happiness. “Natural happiness is what we get when we get what we wanted, and synthetic happiness is what we make when we don’t get what we wanted.” Apparently, humans have “cognitive processes” within us that help us to feel better about the world around us and the events that happen to us. We “metabolize our heartbreaks, so what seems unbearable at first might prove to be the best thing that ever happened to us, or so our brains will convince us.” As it turns out, synthetic happiness is just as good as natural happiness, and in fact, most of the time we don’t know the difference. We tend to make meaning out of all the circumstances of our lives, and as we make meaning, we also make our own happiness.
As I reflect on my life, I can see how this is true. For instance, my first year of college was difficult, but now I see that if it hadn’t been so hard, I may never have turned to God. I was desperate, so I was open enough to try a bible study, and from that I began to seek a relationship with God. In the cool, clear light of hindsight, I can see that God was really pursuing a relationship with me. God didn’t cause my suffering, but God worked through it to reach me. There’s something in me that seeks to understand this experience and use it to explain why I’m happy with how things turned out. Calling it a “cognitive process” doesn’t sound very holy, but it kind of is. I find God in the events themselves and through my reflections about those events as well.
I’m certainly not the first one to think about life this way. The Hebrew Scripture writers also sought to make meaning from events in the life of their people, in particular the experience of the exile. As I learned in grad school, all of the Old Testament is a response to this defining event, this collective heartbreak and shared trauma. In our reading from Isaiah, the writer reflects on how the Israelites will be restored to their land and welcomed back as God’s own people. When they return, the people will have what they always wanted. That’s natural happiness. However, as they consider all that has transpired, they see how God has cared for them, even through King Cyrus, the unwitting agent of Providence. They find God’s presence in the worst thing that ever happened to them. That’s synthetic happiness. So, as they look toward restoration, happiness is all around.
God is taking care of me and gently guiding me, helping me to make meaning from the things that happen in my life too. Our community has a prayer called the Act of Abandonment to Divine Providence that speaks to God’s way of guiding our lives. Its first line is, “Providence of my God, I adore you in all your designs.” Providence is a design that God and I are creating together, and when I turn and look back at our work, I can see the pattern. I adore God’s designs by noticing them, by seeking to make meaning from them, and by opening to God’s love in all circumstances. Maybe it’s natural happiness, or maybe it’s synthetic happiness. That which we call Providence, by any other name would smell as sweet. It’s all God.
When you reflect on events in your life, can you see God’s design? What is it like?
How has God cared for you, even when you were unaware at the time?
The Catholic Study Bible: New American Bible Including the Revised Psalms and the Revised New Testament. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Zomorodi, Manoush. “Debbie Millman: Designing Our Lives.” TED Radio Hour. NPR, September 25, 2020. https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/916499226/debbie-millman-designing-our-lives?showDate=2020-09-25.
By Sister Leslie Keener, CDP
Sister Leslie Keener, CDP is the director of God Space, a community-building spirituality ministry in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. She’s a Sister of Divine Providence with a Masters in Ministry and a Certificate in Spiritual Direction and Retreats from Creighton University. She directs retreats, meets with people for spiritual direction, and serves as the vocation director for her community. She also serves on the Coordinating Council of Spiritual Directors International. She enjoys music, dancing, and meaningful conversations.