I've seen in myself and in many many Christians around me a very fatalistic view of life. This is much less of an issue for those who aren't Christian. In one sense, yes, whatever happens, does happen, and God's character of love and caring for us is consistent. On the other hand, many Christians become crippled to inaction and helplessness because we don't know how to flow with God. Every once in a while, I'll meet with a believer, hear a sermon, or pray with someone who is very very intense. These people stir up something in my spirit that makes me long to get moving, to lose it all for the sake of the kingdom of God, and to start now. And I'd wonder, "Is this from God? This yearning in my heart to move mountains? Isn't this lack of trust?" Mmm. I'm beginning to believe its not. Check out what Dallas Willard says in Hearing God:

The whatever-comes view. This third mistaken view of how God speaks is commonly adopted and has much to recommend it in terms of the peace of mind and freedom from struggle that it provides. But in fact it amounts to giving up any possibility of a conscious interchange between God and his children. The view even shows up in some of our most loved hymns. There is a well-known hymn entitled "If Thou but Suffer God to Guide Thee." This may seem to be exactly what we are talking about: allowing God to guide us. But when we study the hymn closely we find it counsels us to accept everything that happens as the guidance of God. If you wish to know what God would have you do, it is no help at all to be told that whatever comes is his will. For you are, precisely, in the position of having to decide in some measure what is to come. Does it mean that whatever you do will be God's will? I certainly hope not. We can at least say that if Moses had accepted this view, there would have been no nation of Israel. Perhaps there would have been a nation of "Mosesites" instead. When the people made and worshipped the golden calf while Moses was on Sinai receiving God's commandments, God said to him, "Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation" (Ex 32:10). Not only did Moses not accept whatever came, he actually and successfully withstood God's own declared intent in the matter, appealing to God's reputation before the surrounding nations and to his friendship with Abraham. "And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he had planned to bring on his people" (32:14). Many things that happen are not the will of God, although obviously he does not act to stop them. For example, "the Lord is ... not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance" (2 Pet 3:9). Nevertheless countless people do perish and fail to come to repentance. God's world is an arena in which we have an indispensable role to play. The issue is not simply what God wants but also what we want and will. When we accept whatever comes, we are not receiving guidance. The fact that something happens does not indicate that it is God's will. With respect to many events in our future, God's will is that we should determine what will happen. What a child does when not told what to do is the final indicator of what and who that child is. And so it is for us and our heavenly Father. In opposition to these three mistaken views of discerning God's voice, we have the conversational view, where - in a manner to be explored further - there is an appropriate, clear, specific communication through conscious experience from God to the individual believer within the context of a life immersed in God's kingdom.    Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;      you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am ....    The Lord will guide you continually,      and satisfy your needs in parched places,      and make your bones strong;    and you shall be like a watered garden,      like a spring of water, whose waters never fail (Is 58:9, 11)

This completely jives with what I know to be true in my life and in the lives of those who have most displayed the life of Jesus to me. Lord, stir up our faith and let us walk with your vision for our lives! Bring it in Lord!