I dunno about you, but I have used that throw away line all too often – ‘it’s ok because God is in control.‘

When you fail an exam you needed to pass – ‘it’s ok God is in control.’

When half your church leaves because they feel like your preaching is dodgy – ‘its ok because God is in control. He is working out his plans.’

When you miss out on a job you applied for and thought you were sure to get – ‘its ok God is in control. We just haven’t found God’s best for us…’

When you have just bought a house and interest rates suddenly rise – ‘it’s ok God is in control (at least I hope he is…)’

Add your own scenario, but I’m sure if you have grown up in evangelicalism you have probably heard this and maybe said this. It seems to suggest that when things go wrong, it’s ok because God has a bigger plan that we just can’t see as yet. So if all is not going your way, don’t stress because ‘God’s got this!’

The ‘don’t worry God’s got this’ line seems best applied to first world problems and minor life disruptions. It doesn’t work so well for world poverty, devastating wars or other kinds of systemic injustice – which me wonder if it actually holds true whatsoever.

I can see that God has a trajectory on which he has set creation and that we anticipate the second coming of Jesus and the new creation as the end game – but in between I’m not sure God’s ‘got’ much at all.

It’s not to say God doesn’t interact in the world and he doesn’t influence and speak to us. I believe he does and my own experience would speak to that. It’s more to say that when it all comes down to it, he has created a natural world with laws and systems and he has either given us a free will or he hasn’t. If we aren’t completely free then it isn’t really a free will…

It’s not a deist view – more a perspective that tries to grapple with the reality of our experience in this world, while acknowledging the presence and reality of God within it.

I grew up in the era that preached ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.’ I’m not sure if that plan was ever as simple as relationship with him. It often felt like we were being encouraged to find God’s (very specific) plan for our lives – God’s ‘perfect will’ – ever heard that phrase? Again, that framing works much better in an affluent western context. I wonder how a child in Gaza would feel hearing that today? ‘God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.’ It might sound a bit rich.

So perhaps before you toss that phrase around consider what you are saying by it, what it says about God and what it may therefore imply about you…