Purposelessness

(While at Punganur...)

For quite sometime now I've been very much convinced that God does not do things for me... rather He has bestowed me – and each one of us too – the grace enough to accomplish the act. However, a good friend of mine has been throwing hints at how God could accomplish on His own things. At first I was not very keen on following this trend of thought. For me it was akin to say, “things happen”. For me, they don't... we make them happen. But I'm now exploring what I did not want to see earlier: that things happen, without me actually doing it. I still do not believe in things happening while I'm lazing around and expecting that work gets done. However, God does have His ways.

I've been reading this booklet titled, Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel and here's one line that I couldn't just go beyond:

What stands in your way is that you have a much too wilful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen.

Looking back in my own life, perhaps I've had this difficulty in not believing that God too can work, without me, because of the innumerable people, instances and experiences I've encountered where everyone just preaches that God will see to things... most often, without 'moving even their little finger'.