A Ruined Life?

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. —Douglas Adams

There was a time when we all had dreams and plans. Everything was under control. We had pre-written, in our fantasies, the story that was to be our life. We thought we knew where we were going and how we were going to get there. We knew the way we wanted it to be. And then . . . life happened.

Somehow we failed to include broken relationships, illnesses, addictions, and all manner of losses and disappointments in our carefully crafted life script. In spite of that oversight, we likely got a few of them anyway. At some point it seemed like our life took off on an erratic course of its own. It didn’t follow our plan and it didn’t even consult us about what WE wanted. We totally lost control of our destiny. Even though it was a control that we never really had, we thought we did and that made the deviations even more devastating.

Most of us have encountered that moment (or moments) when we became completely overwhelmed with the sense that our life had been ruined beyond repair. All the mars and scars that have snuck up on us have totally obliterated the plan. We’re convinced that we can never make it right again. And, if the only way to make it “right” is to return to our original dream, it’s true. We can’t.

But our life isn’t ruined. In fact, the opposite is true. We just haven’t yet been able to fully see, understand or trust the power God has to take every fiery dart and painful incident that the enemy meant to harm us and turn them into something that benefits us and others. It’s through all the struggles that we gain wisdom, empathy and a greater capacity to love.

Sure, we have ended up in a place we would never have chosen to go on our own, but in getting there we have become more the person God always intended us to be. The fullness of that realization frees us to embrace the life we have been given with gratitude, optimism and contentment.

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. — Proverbs 19:21