Hi everyone:
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I know that we all approach the question of God from our own perspectives, so I wanted to share mine in case it could be helpful. I was spurred to write by our philosopher colleague, and I do pray that she (he?) is emerging from that state of despair. (And Apis, the original posting on the results board seemed a bit specific for a joke. Whether grad school rejections are only the last straw in a long line of difficulties, it seems that our colleague is in a very dark place. I would reiterate my encouragement for her or him to talk to someone right away. Replies on the results board offered resources for suicide prevention, and I think that would be a good place to start.)
Mathamathick, I respect your alternate take on the situation but I am a little surprised that you'd assume religion and philosophy are mutually incompatible. Some of the most thoughtful people I've known have been people of faith who are also philosophy graduate students. I understand that may not be the case among the grad students you've known, but philosophers are hardly a monolithic bunch.
Speaking from my own experience, life has gone so much better when I've made the deliberate decision to ask God to put me in the right place at the right time. Similar to Hermes' lottery example, when I've pushed my way through to get something I really wanted, it often turned out to be a disaster. For those who have had great success on your own, I can understand why this seems like a superfluous step. But I know that I lack the wisdom and perspective to manage my own destiny. (As if such a thing were truly possible with hundreds of applicants for every slot!)
As I see it, the hope in all of this comes from the fact that God really does love us and wants good things for us. In fact, God finds us positively delightful. Personally, that blows my mind. As we are all struggling to convince ad comms that we are fabulous, I think it's pretty encouraging that the One who knows us better than anyone has already chosen to love us. Our response, of course, is up to us. I know how amazingly God has brought me through some very dark times (far more serious than not getting into grad school!) and based on that experience, I know that God is available to anyone who seeks Him.
So that, dear friends, is a short version of my understanding of hope. We are more than our GRE scores. We are more than the last one off the waitlist. We each have a unique purpose, which I believe we can best tap into by asking God to direct our steps. I find a lot of hope in that.
(My stats since my last post: 1 rejection, the rest silent.)
Peace,
Hedgehog
