How much does God directly intervene?

Staring at the stars on a clear night. Staring into the ocean. A flight across the country. Going to a funeral. That feeling of your insignificance. All of those lead to introspection. It begs the questions of where we fit. And I find myself asking over and over. How much does God directly intervene in our lives? 

That's a question that's taken a lot of my spiritual space lately. And it's led to a follow up, does it matter?

I think how I've changed my prayers. And I think that answers the question but I'm not sure.

For a long part of my life, especially as a child I believed that God would directly intervene in our prayers. That he could rescue me from various situations. 

I don’t know I can prayer for that anymore. That I can ask for a metaphysical intervention. That there’s a purpose for that. For me or for anyone.

It’s made me wonder more and more about the entire ideas of preordination and predestination. Whether they effect the interventions that can occur for us. Both require an omniscient God. But neither require intervention from God. 

That was a reality check for me. And even though I don't personally believe or have faith in a predestination, I wonder if intervention occurs. I don't think so anymore. And it all boiled down to one thing. Medical intervention. I've worked in various aspects of the realms of medicine and healthcare for my entire career. I've experienced what outcomes come from good medicine and what can happen when that doesn't occur. I've seen lives saved, I've seen them prolonged, and I've seen them ended. All by what occurred at the hands and actions of providers. What I do matters. So if it didn't I would be consumed by a sense of hopelessness. But I'm not. I feel what I do matters. My training, my education, my effort all matter. 

I know there are many people who's day to day is built upon a faith of divine intervention. They place their lives in the Lord's hands in all things. They rely on upon a knowledge and faith that he knows best and guides their life. I understand this perspective and where it comes from. I know where it leads. Some people refuse medical interventions choosing to rely on God and his desires. 

In some ways I used to be there. I was unafraid of risk. Unburdened by what my actions could bring. If I was living "correct" then I had no reason to fear. I was going to go when it was my time. I would be blessed and all would be well. 

That's changed. 

I see God as supportive, I don't see him as intervening. I see he gave us our agency, our purpose, and that leads to our impact. If he intervened all the time our growth and our lives would lose a lot of meaning. It comes into contact with what I believe we are here to do. 

Next to my role in medicine, one thing changed that perspective. It was simply that bad things happen to good people. That even the best people can get sick, and sometimes healing never happens. Natural disasters strike. And worse of all, people hurt people. Bad people can really hurt people. To take that to an extreme, if God truly would intervene, part the red sea and flood the metaphorical Egyptian army then military intervention would be unnecessary. But that's not the case.  What we do matters. Both individually and as groups. I think that's the way it's supposed to be. 

So I don't think God intervenes directly the same anymore. Holding the belief that he doesn't, it doesn't eliminate my faith. It's changed the relationship. It's deepened the questions. 

I feel a call to do so much more for me, my family, and my fellow man. I feel so many desires to reach out. To do what I can. Because my actions have real consequences. 

I don't know if someone will ever save us. Or if we just have to find the means to save ourselves. 

That may not be such a bad thing.