Does leaving things to Heaven mean accepting only the outcome I want?

Leaving things to Heaven also means being willing to face outcomes that differ from your expectations. If you say you believe only when events go your way, inwardly you are still holding tightly to what you originally wanted.

Before a pilgrimage to central and southern Taiwan, forecasts warned of a typhoon and rain. People worried the trip would be difficult, and some no longer wanted to go. Our attitude then was that we would go in sunshine and would also be willing to face rain. What happened was unusual: the sun came out where we stopped, and it rained after we left. This was an experience of faith and action on that particular trip. We had not demanded sunshine from Heaven as a condition of setting out.

That weather therefore cannot be taken to mean belief controls the weather, or that every trip will turn out the same way. Our willingness to go already included accepting the possibility of rain.

“Everything is arranged for the best” does not mean doing nothing. Accepting what has already happened allows us to see how to adjust now. When circumstances change, find the best response available within those changes, instead of refusing to settle inwardly until events meet your expectations.

If a car parked by the road is hit and damaged, of course you will feel upset. But from another angle, at least nobody was inside and people are safe. Viewed through faith, perhaps a worse accident was avoided. That “perhaps” is a way of changing perspective, not knowledge that a particular accident would otherwise certainly have happened. You can still seek compensation for the damage. Settling your feelings and dealing with the loss can happen together.

I have also wondered whether my later feeling that most of life was going fairly well came from circumstances actually improving or from a broader way of seeing things. An experience I once regarded as entirely bad might be reminding me to learn, correct something or change. Seeing those reminders makes it easier to recognize what I can learn next, instead of seeing only bad luck and suffering.