If you walk down the street with half an ear open, you’ll hear this remark several times a day. Rich or poor, educated or not—everyone says it. And even if you don’t say it out loud, the feeling that “it was meant to be” can still creep up on you.
This feeling contains something of a sense of destiny. As if something has reached its goal, the very purpose it was apparently destined for. As if something greater than ourselves had mysteriously decided it had to turn out this way.
It carries the element of “there was no escaping it.” Even though everything was against it, or we resisted it with all our might, it still couldn’t have turned out any other way.
This deep feeling goes beyond the idea of coincidence: spin the bingo ball a few times, and someone wins. Bingo and chance are too simple as explanations for the feeling of destiny. Chance is a label we assign to the likelihood of something happening; destiny is a feeling that overtakes us about what has happened—or is happening.
Destiny defies our rational minds. If our world is just random chance, then why do we experience a feeling that goes beyond it? That’s precisely where the mystery lies.
This experience is not limited to the rich or poor, the educated or uneducated. Every religion also offers its own interpretation of destiny.
In Exodus 9:16, the second book of the Jewish scriptures, it says:
“But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Even closer to our lived experience is the wisdom literature from Proverbs 16:9:
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”
A few centuries later, the apostle Paul declared in Acts 13:48 that Jesus was the Son of God:
“When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.”
And again, a few centuries later, the Islamic prophet Muhammad received the revelation recorded in Surah Al-Insan (76:3):
“Indeed, We (Allah) guided him (man) to the way, be he grateful or ungrateful.”
Hinduism also reflects a belief in destiny, as expressed in the Bhagavad Gita 18:61:
“The Lord dwells in the heart of every living being, O Arjuna, and directs their wanderings as if mounted on a machine, by His divine power.”
Beyond religion, what remains are our personal ideas (and with them, philosophical schools of thought) about the feeling that “it was meant to be.”
So, next time you hear someone say it on the street, ask yourself: “Ah, what might that person believe that makes them feel it had to be this way?” Or, what do I personally believe about our sense of destiny?
Or you can visit a church, or religious sermon, if you’d like to learn more about God and our sense of destiny.
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