In a recent interview about the current economic ‘crisis’, Scott Bader-Saye comments on his recent book entitled Following Jesus in a Culture of Fear. I found his comments pretty helpful for approaching life in general:

“I have argued that part of how we can maintain hope and courage in the
midst of fear is to trust that God is indeed leading the world’s story,
and our individual stories, to their good and proper end. This does not
take place, however, in straight lines or obvious interventions. God is
always working in, with, and around our human actions, never simply
taking control of history or making our participation nugatory. Our
attempts to discern patterns of divine activity, therefore, must always
remain under negotiation and are best seen in retrospect. We must avoid
simplistic readings of events that turn every disaster into divine
judgment and every success into divine reward. Both Job and Jesus
challenge such interpretations and force us to take account of the
complexities and contingencies of life as well as the mystery of divine
action.

As I say in the book, a Christian who was inclined toward
bumper-sticker theology might rightly place a “shit happens” decal
alongside a “God is my co-pilot” sticker. Here the language of
“overaccepting” seems helpful to me. Sam Wells, in his wonderful book Improvisation,
discusses the Christian life using the metaphor of improvisational
drama. In an improv, the actor can accept, block, or overaccept the
“offer”—the words or gestures—of another actor. In blocking, one
refuses to carry along the story as the other actor has suggested, in
accepting one embraces the direction offered, and in overaccepting one
takes what is offered but situates it in another narrative with a wider
scope or different trajectory. Overaccepting redefines the course of
the drama without having to block or cut off the contribution of the
other actor.

I imagine divine providence as God’s responses to our human offers—our
thoughts, words, and deeds—so as to accept, block, or overaccept what
we have contributed to the story. As I look at the biblical narrative,
God seems rarely to block our actions (perhaps the flood is a singular
example of this) but more often to overaccept our imperfect
contributions to the drama. God promises to provide for us in times of
trouble and to redeem what is lost but not (most often) to prevent evil
from happening. In this way freedom and contingency are given their
proper place in the movement of history without thereby giving up on
the idea that God is at work to redeem and consummate the creation.”