It’s All a Set-Up!!

The situation you are in is not by chance.  You have been set up.  It’s all part of a well thought-out plan.

Those challenges that most push your buttons?  On purpose.  Those people that drive you crazy?  Planted right in front of you.  The hazards, pitfalls, temptations, carrots on the end of the stick, bright shiny objects just out of reach?  Why are you surprised?

All some sinister plan?  Well, why would you assume the worst?  If you assume that life is in opposition to your greater good, meant to drag you down, something you will never get “right”, well that sounds like a set-up to fail.  Deep down, is that what you really believe?  If so, sounds pretty hopeless to me.  Why do you even try?

Or do you believe that God is good, that life has purpose, that in essence, you are beautiful and good and perfect and loved?

Which is it?

How would you act if you were convinced that your life is perfectly planned for you, by you, with great care and love?  What if you knew that the angels have your back?  That it is impossible to fail?

Would you stop worrying about making mistakes, and start to appreciate the beauty and intricacy of the plan?  Would you be more likely to see the synchronicities?  Would you appreciate the new perspectives you gain from the experiences?  Would you become more wise?

(To be fair, I’m not including the “random” scenario – everything happens by chance, there is no Creator, it’s all just a random happenstance with no meaning.  I know some people believe this.  I just took too much science and learned about entropy.  Chance leads to chaos, not order.  The random theory just makes no sense to me, so I tend not to give it any attention.  That’s just me.  If you are a believer in the random theory, disregard this whole thing.  I would just ask one question:  If you really believe in the random scenario, why do you even care?  Caring seems inconsistent with the randomness, to me.)

No one else can convince you what to believe.  Oh, they can try.  They can give forceful opinions.  They can preach from the pulpit.  They can write about it.  But what you truly believe inside, cannot be forced.  Only you can examine it, think about it, know what it is that you believe in your heart.  And if you don’t have any interest in the question, no one can make you think about it either!!

But I wonder —  even if a person doesn’t consciously think about it, are they still operating under one of these beliefs?  Is there a default setting deep inside?

I don’t think anyone would disagree, that a person would act differently depending on how they see the world.  If it’s all a sinister plan and there is no hope, a person would be more self-protective, more suspicious, and more competitive.  If a person believed that all is for the greater good, they would tend to be more open, trusting, giving, and hopeful.  Am I wrong here?

So my next question is, which belief system results in a “better” world?  If every single person chose one way or the other, what would be the result?

Just to make it more interesting, what would happen if every single person except one thought the world was sinister?  The world would operate in a competitive manner, everyone would be in it for themselves, people would be grabbing what they could get without a thought about how their actions affected others.  The one person with a different view would get crushed.  Everyone else would take advantage of that person, and they wouldn’t last long.  They would probably lose hope.

Now think about the opposite scenario.  Every person except one knows they are loved and trusts the process.  They give others the benefit of the doubt.  They spend time to think about what they have learned from their experiences.  They have hope.  The one insecure, scared, competitive person doesn’t trust anyone.  They take advantage whenever they can.  And what happens?  Others continue to love them anyway.  They have compassion and understand that this person is only acting according to their beliefs.  How long do you think it would be before this person is able to relax and trust that all will be well?

So, what if you lived in the first world, the sinister one?  And what if, over time, more and more people came to see life from the opposite perspective?  What if, despite past history and disappointments and pain, they came to the conclusion that there is purpose and that we all are, deep down, good and lovable?

Many people would still be competitive and focused on survival of the fittest.  They would take advantage.  The trusting people would have to remain pretty darn strong to keep loving and giving the benefit of the doubt and believing it would all work out.  The trusting people would have a hard time holding on to their beliefs.  The competitive people would scoff at them and tell about their “real world.”  But slowly, one by one, those competitive people would experience the love, compassion and forgiveness of the trusting people.  Even just one act of caring from a converted survivor would feed the Hope that everyone could one day have compassion and respect for others.

Now THAT’S an interesting set-up….

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