Are our lives governed by fate or do we have freedom and creativity to shape our destinies? Does God have a clear plan for us, choosing the most important things in our lives without our awareness or consent, or is the unfolding of our lives the result of the interplay of chance and choice and divine call and human response? While it doesn’t claim to be academic theology, that’s the theme that runs through The Adjustment Bureau, a fast-paced thriller that joins romance and popular theology.
Destined for political greatness, and perhaps even the White House, David Norris unexpectedly discovers the inner workings of human destiny. As a result of a chance encounter with free-spirited dancer, Elise Sellas, Norris discovers that beneath his perceived decision-making and political ambition, the Chairman (known by many names, including God) has already written the story of his life. The Chairman has destined him to become the president of the United States. Because humankind can’t handle freedom responsibly, God must intervene creating a pattern of plans, involving every person, to insure the survival of the planet. God’s agenda is clear for us, but we unknowingly play our roles, thinking we are in control of the events of our lives when in actually they have already been chosen for us. What happens is ultimately all for the best, but we just don’t know it.
In the course of living out the Chairman’s life plan for him, a chance encounter changes everything. Or perhaps, it isn’t entirely chance. Elise was apparently– at one point – was destined by the Chairman to be his soul mate. Though that plan was scrapped by the Chairman, whose minions sought to prevent the meeting at every turn, the energy of the plan not taken brings them together and the on-screen excitement begins. The film unfolds as Norris chooses to thwart the Chairman’s current plan to follow his heart, and make a life with his one true love. But, changing the plan may have dire consequences. It will send ripples across planetary history and may bring disaster to both Norris and Sellas.
Despite the machinations of the plan-keepers (aka angels), who seek to call Norris back to his life plan at every juncture, the draw of love is irresistible. In some subtle way, Norris’ and Sellas’ falling in love reflects the power of Gods’ discarded plans to shape our lives. There is a plan behind everything that happens to us. Divine decision, or fate, determines the important events of our lives so that we contribute to the greater good. But, the film suggests another option – another way of understanding destiny and God’s influence in our lives.
The Adjustment Bureau pits plan against possibility. Yes, like traditional theologians as well as the popular Rick Warren, the film suggests that God has a plan, and our lives unfold according to it. But, chance can intervene and take us off course, potentially thwarting our pre-established destiny. Still, does chance point to a deeper truth – that there are many plans or possibilities, rather than a single well-defined plan? That is the theological question!
The Adjustment Bureau depicts the age old tension between fate and freedom. But, it also suggests an alternative vision of reality and divine activity in our lives. Perhaps, as the film suggests, the Chairman puts the plan in play to sustain planetary welfare but is willing to adjust the plan, or even scrap it, when presented with our passionate, risk-taking freedom. God is not, contra traditional doctrines of predestination, limited by previous plans, but in extraordinary occasions alter our destined pathways and let limited creaturely freedom burst forth. The plan may even be more dynamic than the angelic case workers think.
The Adjustment Bureau invites us to consider that there may be options in our understanding of freedom and destiny. Oftentimes, freedom and destiny are seen as opposed to one another as irreconcilable. Either we are entirely free or fully determined. What if there are many possible plans for our lives, dotted lines that are constantly being arranged in relation to our choices and environmental context? What if the plans and visions for our lives are intended to elicit our creativity and choice rather than place limitations on human possibility? What if God’s visions are proposals, whose purpose is to encourage our creativity and choice?
Now, psychologists and theologians alike are, for the most part, clear that creaturely freedom is always conditioned by many factors, and perhaps a combination of factors, such as God, environment, past-experiences, gender, race, economics, and so on. In society and theology, order is essential for our well-being but order may also be the stepping stone to innovation. And, this leads us out of the impasse of choosing for or against freedom or determinism. From this perspective, God is constantly dancing with creation, moving in one direction, guiding our paths, but then moving in the other in response to our decisions. Chance and freedom are real and they bring new possibilities, new injections of divine guidance into our lives. Like a good parent, whose child is making up a story or drawing a picture, God, who supplies the crayons, paper, and childhood nurture, says to the child, “Surprise me, do something I hadn’t expected. Your creativity allows me to do new things!”
The Adjustment Bureau raises some key theological questions around the nature of freedom and destiny. It invites us to question God’s role in success and failure, and life and death. It plays off orthodoxy and innovation, conservative and progressive, and ultimately aligns itself with a dynamic vision of divine decision-making, chance, and human choice. God may have many visions and we may have many vocations, calling to us simultaneously, and changing as we make decisions within the intricate interdependence of life. Passion and love give birth to new possibilities, and enable us to break free of the plans others have made for us.
Bruce Epperly is a theologian, spiritual guide, healing companion, retreat leader and lecturer, and author of nineteen books, including Holy Adventure: 41 Days of Audacious Living; God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus; and Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry. He blogs at Living A Holy Adventure, and may be reached at bruceepperly@gmail.com.
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