What is “God's will”?

Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash

Someone recently asked me if I ever thought that saying “it's God's will” at a funeral was rude. It seemed rude to her, as though it's perfectly okay to assume that God wanted to kill off her father. She rejected this notion.

I suggested to her that the phrase “it's God's will” might be best understood as “stuff happens which you cannot possibly have any control over.” Even if someone does not have faith in a grand plan, perhaps at least they can accept this, as in the Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to change the things I can,

And wisdom to know the difference.

Reinhold Niebuhr

Bad stuff happens, and it’s not because God is out to get you. And believing in God doesn’t get you a free pass (as Job found out).

You don’t have to accept the notion of a cosmic, malevolent puppet master. God is not “out to get you.”