Uninvited Events

No man ever lived his life exactly as he planned it. There are things all of us want that we don’t get. There are plans all of us make that never move beyond the hopes in our hearts. There are reverses which upset our fondest dreams. Unforeseen events are always in the offing. Countless people who have had their careers carefully planned have seen them swept aside by a single sudden circumstance. Accidents, ill health, misfortune in money matters, the loss of loved ones, the faithlessness of friends, the tragedies of a troubled world, the missing of time and tide, and many other untoward events, can, in a moment, take from any of us the plans and pleasures and purposes we have long pursued. And when events take a turn we haven’t anticipated, and upset our plans and purposes, we sometimes give way to hopelessness or to fatalistic fear or to bitter rebellion—rebellion against life, rebellion against our inability to control it according to our own ideas. And often we rail against facts that cannot be refuted, and bruise our heads and our hearts in fighting irrevocable realities. But when some unlooked-for accident, or some uninvited event does enter in, there is no peace or purpose in letting rebellion rankle within us. There are many things in life beyond the present power of anyone to alter or to answer or to understand. And what we cannot understand we shall have to accept on faith—until we do understand. In any case, rebellion isn’t the answer. But neither is hopeless resignation. Resignation may retreat too far. But somewhere between bitter rebellion and beaten resignation there is an effective fighting ground where a man can make the most of whatever is; where he can still face each day and do with it whatever can be done. And when life rides roughly over our best laid plans, the way to personal peace, to faith and effectiveness, to accomplishment and reconciliation, is to change what should be changed, if we can, and to make the most of whatever is, when we can’t for the moment change the facts we face.