Season 6 of LOST is helping me understand God a bit
So I have always enjoyed the TV show LOST which has serious themes of good vs evil, redemption, guilt and the consequences of our choices, but this season has helped me to understand God a little better. Let’s see how fast this community can tear this up.
Last week, Slice of Infinity ran a great article on Plan B (http://www.rzim.org/usa/usfv/tabid/436/articleid/10511/cbmoduleid/1133/default.aspx ) which presented a great way of looking at God’s plan for our lives. I remember as a teenager in the youth group community / college community and frequently the question of “What is God’s plan in my life?” came up. The article addresses this question in the following unique way.
A wise friend of mine once wondered if following God was not something like following the directions on a GPS system. At the beginning of the journey, the plan for arriving at the desired destination is set before you. But when you accidentally turn left or are forced to take an unforeseen detour, the computer doesn’t scold you. It doesn’t force you to start over or announce that you can no longer make it to your final destination because you have ruined the route. In fact, it doesn’t even make you feel guilty. The end still in mind, it simply adjusts the plan from that point onward, as if the “wrong” turn was a part of the journey all along. The destination has not changed. Plan A may have switched to Plan B, but the outcome will be the same.
With this in mind, LOST got me thinking about alternate realities. My Old Testament professor in college always said that reality, especially in terms of sinners coming to faith in Christ, is “100% man’s free will + 100% God’s sovereignty”. While this understanding lines up with Scripture, it is hard to wrap your head around. Using the GPS analogy and LOST’s alternate realities from this season, this is how I am thinking about the conflict now.
So my changed understanding is this. God is not constrained by time and therefore can see / is sovereign over all possible alternate realities of our lives. This could be seen in the book of Jonah where God says He was going to destroy Nineveh, yet does not when the people repent. Being that God is unchangeable, this posed an issue for me. Now, the way I think about it is that God saw 2 alternate realities, was completely in control of both, and responded as He had planned in that reality.
The post is long, but what is people’s thoughts on this? Helpful or not? May God be glorified as we search for Him and His nature.
While I am not going to jump on the unchanging bandwagon right now (I love how you subtly slip that in knowing that its something that I am struggling with).
I will say that why does God need a plan B? I think the GPS analogy falls apart really fast because not only does God know your destination he also knows all the turns, potholes and flat tires you’ll have and hit along the way.
I aim to please with well-timed posts CX.
What I was trying to say in my post is that God is Lord over all Plan A through Plan Z. It’s clear that man has some measure of free will therefore I guess I was trying to work through how God’s plan would be somewhat flexible. In some ways, I feel like this shows God to be even more sovereign in that he is control of all possibilities in my life and will work them out to His glory ala GPS analogy.
I guess I just dont understand the need for any flexibility. Not only does God (who lives outside of time) know what you thought and what you did in the future, but also he knows you better then you know yourself, so why would he need more then 1 plan?