Why Do Our Plans Make God Laugh?

There is a joke about a man asking God: “Lord, what is the best way to make You laugh?” God answers: “Tell me about your plans.” So stands the question: Why do our plans make God laugh?

It is because when we plan, we think that we are above life’s events, as if we can plan the future that is already set in God’s view. This is completely unjustified, and this is the meaning of our plans making God laugh. In other words, from the perspective of the upper force—the force we call “God,” “the Creator,” or “Nature” that is beyond our very intellect and emotions, which created and develops them and which has planned every detail of reality—then the fact that we think that we can somehow plan outside or differently to the plan that is already in place, is indeed a ridiculous notion.

On the other hand, we see how people constantly make plans for their future, even simply planning a vacation for the summer, or the tasks that we have to carry out on any given day. But if we had a deeper view of reality, then we would see that we cannot program ourselves for the future. Doing so, as Woland once stated, requires us knowing what will happen at least 1,000 years in advance. I thus would say that we cannot truly plan anything.

Can we then live without plans? We can live without plans if we put our plans aside and accept the plans of the next, upper level. What kinds of plans are these? What plan do we then live by? We then live by the plan of the upper nature, the Creator, the single force of love, bestowal, and connection that has already planned our entire existence.

We can then imagine that we want only to be in close contact with this force. Such a “plan” does not make God laugh. We can then organize ourselves to wish to enter into such a contact, and then we place no importance on what actually happens to us because we cling to our life’s causal force, which is beyond our plans, thoughts, and emotions. In such a state, we also have no interest in knowing the Creator’s plans. We simply give ourselves over to the Creator, and let the upper plan in nature guide us. That is, we enter into complete agreement with it.

God then does not laugh at our plans, but rejoices in the way we direct our desires at connection with Him. Our own plans are always connected to self-pride, that we separate ourselves as an individual entity, seemingly outside of the Creator’s rule. The Creator ultimately wants us to remove this layer of self-pride from ourselves because it greatly limits the extent to which we can truly perceive, sense, and delight in the reality He created. We need to eventually realize that self-pride—the self-serving individual ego that gives us a perception of separation, incompleteness, and transience—is a quality that does only bad to us.

In an era characterized by more and more people’s plans completely falling apart, the ability to deal with such difficulties depends on how we can prepare ourselves for the fact that our plans will not materialize, and that we will have to change our plans to God’s plan. By doing so, we will be able to truly enjoy a harmonious and peaceful life.

In other words, we make our plans, but in the end, what transpires is according to the Creator’s will. We need to make plans, but we need to also convince ourselves that what will materialize is the Creator’s plan and not our own. The beneficial message here for planning our lives is then to do as we best deem fit, but the outcome will be as the Creator decides. We should thus add “If the Creator wills” to every plan we make in life.

Based on KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 1, 2024. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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