"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."--Joseph Campbell
Has your life turned out as you planned? In many ways, mine has. In other ways, it is far different than the life I planned.
The fact is, life is full of twists and turns. These can be the result of our choices; they can be the result of the choices of others. These can be because hard things happen. To all of us. I have several friends whose lives have taken a hard road due to cancer. The lives they thought they had were no longer. But they adjusted; they survived; they thrived. Not because of the cancer, but in spite of it.
Other friends deal with heartache over children. Some struggle with the loss of jobs, enduring financial hardship, loss of self-esteem, and other problems. Some have had to find their way back to happiness after a divorce.
Not one of these friends thought "One day, I'm going to live with cancer." Or, "One day my child is going to rebel against everything I hold dear.." Or, "One day I'm going to lose my job and my home."
What matters is not so much what happens but how we deal with it. A cliche, to be sure. But, like most cliches, it exists because it is true.
This I know for sure: the detours that life takes have their own happiness--if we open our eyes to see.
Has my life turned out as I planned it. . . when? My plans keep changing. My plans look very different now than they did before I was a member of the church. But I know that it's a good idea to change my plans. How foolish it would be for me to keep the same plans I had after I've learned better!
ReplyDeleteEach day I give thanks that my plans didn't work out. God's were infinitely better!
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