Que Sera, Sera…
”Whatever will be will be! The future’s not ours to see. Que sera, sera. What will be, will be. Que sera, sera.”
Many of my readers may be too young to remember this song sung by Doris Day in the 1956 film, The Man Who Knew Too Much. It came to my mind not long ago as I was thinking about suffering and pain. The song’s message is that we cannot control the future, we cannot know what will happen. And then it offers a way of anticipating the future, of accepting what comes, of being at peace with the unknown.
In a way this echoes what a reader of mine once wrote to me. He told me of a dream he had of God talking to him saying, “I want you to pray for what I am about to do.” The reader said, “Great,” and was about to leave the room. “No,” said God who called him back, “I want you to praise me in advance for what I am going to do.” And that second time the reader understood. He was to praise God in advance for what God would soon be doing in his life or the lives of others. He reported that praising God in advance for what God would soon be doing changed his life. He let not only let the future be what it was to be, he was anticipating that God would do something wonderful.
To embrace what we can’t imagine or possibly know is to express the greatest trust in God and what He will be doing in our lives. It’s not about asking for specific things that we want, but anticipating that what God will do is just the exact right thing for us. It is praise for the beneficence, the providence of God, for his love and care for us, for his continuing presence in our lives– all before we even see it happen.
Whatever will be will be… And it will be in our own best interests, for our own growth in the presence of God, for the lessons we need to learn, the things we need to let go of in order to love God with all of ourselves…We can be assured that what He will do will be good for us.
That is not to say that we won’t suffer, that we won’t grieve or be upset, but that we are so tied to God and His providence in our lives that we can see beyond the surface stuff to the love and caring that are implicit in all that God does.
If we adopt this attitude of “Que sera, sera,” we will give up our resistance and embrace what is in our lives, we will be giving up our rebellion and aligning ourselves with God’s will. We will know deep in our souls how gracious is our God, how He involves Himself in each of our lives, in counting the very hairs on our heads, in filling our needs and in challenging us to be our own best selves. And when we count the amount of energy that it took to rebel and resist and to demand of God that He do certain things, we will know that He has just eased our burdens tremendously.
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Questions to ponder over the week
Am I so insistent in my prayers that I want God to do what I want that I can’t see how He is actually answering me? Is it ‘my way or the highway’? Am I mad at God? Do I wonder if He loves me if He doesn’t do what I ask? Or am I willing to go along with God’s answer to my prayers? Am I able to see the value, the gift in what He wants for me? Can I see the pattern in what comes into my life? The next lesson and the next? Can I love God with all of myself—heart, soul, mind and strength?
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Blessing for the week
May we be the people of God who embrace and rejoice in what comes into our lives. May we see beyond the surface disruption to the love and trust implicit in these gifts to us. May we relax and let God carry the burdens and just bask in His plan for us.