Do you ever feel that sometimes your life is being steered in a crazy direction? Sometimes you think, "God must hate me or want me to suffer. Why am I going through this? What can be gained from it?" It's ideas like that that lead to thinking that our lives are predestined by God, and that we really have no control. However, there is another way, the Catholic way. That Catholic way is called Providence.
Providence is God's way of using our free choices to further His Kingdom. Got has a plan for all of us, it's true, and he does nudge us in the right direction. However, if we go another way, as long as we seek Him, He can lead us to salvation. Got may be calling a man to the priesthood, but if a man doesn't get the hint and gets married instead, god can still got him in being a good Catholic husband and father. He can ultimately weave that into his plan, like a tapestry.
Now, what about cases in the Bible like pharaoh in the book of Exodus, or Judas Iscariot in the Gospels? One could argue that God had already condemned them because they committed such evil acts and were woven into his plan. Got even tells Moses in the book of Exodus that he will make Pharaoh obstinate. How does this work with Providence?
As Psalm 139 tells us, God understands our thoughts from afar and is familiar with all our. ways and words. He knows how we will respond to certain promptings, even if He wishes we would respond a different way. Obviously, Jesus must have seen some good in Judas, otherwise he would not have chosen him as an Apostle in the first place. As an Apostle, Judas was chosen to carry out Jesus's work, and to be one of His successors on earth. However, Jesus already knew how he would respond in temptation, even if he didn't wish that to be the case. He was ultimately able to weave that into his plan. In the same way, God knew that Pharaoh was arrogant and that Pharaoh saw himself as a living god. As much as God wanted him to listen, He ultimately knew Pharaoh would not.
Every day we make choices that impact others. We don't know how these choices will be used or perceived. Something we think may have been a grave mistake can ultimately lead to good. There are countless stories of people being arrested and then turning their lives around and spreading the good news of the Gospel. Other times, going through difficult situation can help us help others going through the same situation.
In my own life, I have the experience of having lapsed in my Catholic faith and come back to practicing my faith again. I went to different churches during that time and did some things I wasn't proud of. Ultimately though, it has let me to be a much stronger Catholic, and it has also given me a lot of insight into common misconceptions about the Catholic Church, and allowed me to meet those misconceptions and explain them. Ultimately, God took something bad that I did, and turned into good. He can do that in your life, you just have to let Him do it.
Make choices for God and do your best and trust that He'll take care of the rest of it. Trust that He has a plan that's bigger than you, but ultimately, he wants what's good for you. As he tells the nation of Israel through Isaiah the Prophet, "Because you are precious in my eyes in glorious, and because I love you. I give men in return for you and peoples in exchange for your life."
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