El hombre propone y Dios dispone.

- Spanish proverb.

Quickly now, what do Grandbury, Texas, Moore, Oklahoma and Angelina Jolie have in common?

They are all victims of the cruel, unfeeling, indiscriminate, fickle and whimsical nature of fate.

For Grandbury,Tx. and Moore,Ok., it was the devastation of tornadoes.

For Angelina Jolie, it was a double masectomy to avoid breast cancer.

They all underscore our woeful inability to manage every circumstance, to deny a visit from that most unwelcome guest, Mr. Trouble.

Rich or poor, famous or unknown, powerful or weak, sophisticated city dweller or country bumpkin, we all must give way to the vicissitudes of life.

It has truly been said that in this world you will have trials and tribulations and, yes, bad things not only happen to good people, bad things happen to all people.

How do you cope?

How do you keep your head and maintain your sanity as you travel through this vale of tears?

First of all, you must realize that you will not find all the answers or understand all the reasons behind every action.

Secondly, there are three characteristics of God everyone has to respect or recognize. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He is all powerful, knows everything and is everywhere. He has the whole world in his hands, controls everything and he can do anything.

We are not.

We cannot and we must allow room for his influence, dictates and direction.

With practiced discipline and faith during the times we do not comprehend his hand, we must trust his heart.

We did not create the universe.

We are unable to manipulate fate or shape our own destiny in contravention of his aim and purpose.

He swears by himself for there is none greater.

He performs his mighty acts by the counsel of His own will.

Nevertheless, it stokes our ego and boosts our self esteem to say we are the captain of our ship, master of our own fate and designer of our own future.

The above examples say otherwise.

We are temporary residents of a fallen imperfect world and, despite our best efforts, not every day will be pleasant or will work out to our satisfaction.

Whether righteous or unholy, secular and spiritual history has taught us that not everything in this world will go our way.

In 1603, Queen Elizabeth 1 was nearing the end of her life. Even though her contemporaries like Martin Frobisher, Sir Francis Drake and her mortal enemy Philip II of Spain had passed from the scene, she was having a difficult time because she had lived entirely for this world and hated leaving it.

To appreciate and realize the impact she had on England, one needed to look no further than the beginning and end of her reign. In 1558, when she ascended the throne she inherited a listless, dejected, forlorn country unable to raise an army to retake Calais, an English colony, on the French mainland. Upon her death, she left behind a prosperous, confident country who had defied and defeated Spain, the preeminent world power of the day.

She had never married nor borne any children, so her successor was a big question mark.

Finally and reluctantly, she nominated James The Sixth of Scotland, her nearest relative.

The supreme irony here was that he was the son of Mary Queen of Scots whom Elizabeth had executed because she posed a threat to the throne. Due to some personal indiscretions and perhaps trumped up charges, Mary was considered unwise and unfit to be the primary successor and had to be eliminated.

Notwithstanding, the Biblical translation that bears his name, James did not exude a kingly persona.

He was a homosexual, thoroughly infatuated with George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham.

He was unkindly, described as possessing an overlong tongue, a slobbering mouth and a rickety walk.

He was not the sort of person one would contemplate for a kingship unless by accident of birth and you had no suitable alternative.

Elizabeth, in effect, had come full circle, while trying to eradicate the seed and influence of Mary, she ended up with her son on the throne.

Despite her power and ability, she had chanced upon an adversary she could not defeat. She could not overcome what was written in the following verse, "Yea I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun; because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? Yet he shall have rule over all my labour.”

This brings us to the picture shown above.

This was intended to be a retirement residence for a man and wife through their golden years.

It was started by a couple in their forties who boasted that this house would be the finest on the block and the talk of the town.

It would stand on three lots and would contain at least seven bathrooms. There would be separate maid quarters and another stand alone home for the in-laws.

The front door, alone, a thing of beauty, would cost a hundred thousand dollars.

No expense would be spared to ensure that this would be a structure anybody would be proud of and everybody would admire.

Before completion, the husband inconveniently and unexpectedly died.

It does not matter how many dreams, plans goals or ideas you have, when you drop dead, you drop everything.

So, it sits there, solitary, empty, devoid of life, unfinished, ravaged by man and nature, a testament to the farmer's creed: "The Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, I'll get the plowin' done."

In our rush and ardor to make a name for ourselves and leave our imprint in the sands of time, we have forgotten that it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

The heart of the king is in the hands of the Lord and like a river he can turn it any way he so desires. - Proverbs 21:1

We must remember to season our speech with, "If the Lord wills," since He is the final authority and has the last word.

The English translation of the above proverb says,"Man proposes and God disposes." Indeed the Spanish language, like many others, contain words and phrases which acknowledge the Almighty before undertaking any action such as the word: "Adios,” which literally means to God.

Solomon, wisely advised us, "The conclusion of the whole matter is to fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man.”

As you blaze your trail in this life and make your way in the world, remember the admonition of Jeremiah:

"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,neither let not the mighty man man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he knoweth and understandeth me,that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness righteousness and judgement upon the earth." - Jeremiah 9:23-24

In the business of life, God has to be taken into account or added to the equation. If not, you will become very familiar with the statement of the psalmist:

"For He spoke and it came to be;

He commanded and it stood firm,

The Lord foils the plan of the nations,

He thwarts the purposes of the peoples."

Psalm 3: 9-10

V. Knowles is a husband and father with an interest in penning issues that serve to uplift mankind. He melds his love for Classic literature, The Bible and pop culture - as sordid as it may be - into highly relatable columns of truth, faith and justice. Hence the name: Just Thinking. If he's not buried in a book or penning his next column, you may find him pinned to his sectional watching a good old Country and Western flick.