The Evil of "God's Plan"

.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

The outcome of the this year's election, and more to the point, the fact that so many "Christians" voted for our own private Chavez, has 'caused me again to ask "what are they teaching in churches these days?".

I realized it is only what they are "not" teaching, or actually what they are afraid of teachings. Churches (and pastors) , me thinks, seem to be suffering from a form of people pleasing insecurity. Worried a little too much about numbers of filled seats more than the book of Numbers, all the while turning hard Truthes into empty cliches' to pasteurize their flock, teaching half-verses without the full-meanings.

One such truth, that is used to the point of blasphemy, is that of the Christian-ese platitude "God has a plan".This of course is true, and I know in all things evil our God can bring good, it is just the turning of this truth into a powerless bromide that I am really a bit frustrated with.

It is of course fine to tactfully speak of God's plan to a grieving widow, but not so much if you happen to be the drunk driver who caused the senseless death. It is O.K. to console an unemployed friend with the truth of a brighter future, but maybe not so great to hear it spoken by the boss as he fires you. Could you imagine the rapist telling the victim "Don't worry, God has a plan", and yet I feel too many do use this truth a wee bit too often as an easy excuse while in the act of harming another.

A dear friend's wife recently wrote "Don't worry, I know God has a plan" in a note he found on the kitchen fridge, when she left him and their children, to go off and '"find herself". Did her church even teach that her goal isn't self awareness, but Christ awareness (which leads us to our true self) ?

It is true that God can bring Good outta bad, but that doesn't give us free reign to commit a bad, in the distorted knowledge that God will clean up our mistake. If you are speaking of the Almighty's desire for your life, while actually following your own agendas and goals, are you not in fact making yourself your own god?(granted, this does seem to be the modern American way)

If we are to try to be as lil Christs, than we must first take the bad unto ourselves rather than inflict it, to "plan to prosper our neighbor and not harm them, to give them hope and not take away their future".
.