I just returned from a week in the Dominican Republic. Each time I am there, I get a chance to do something I never get to do at home...SLEEP. My darling loves his sleep, and although I will never understand anyone's desire to waste more time than necessary in a bed, I do give in when I am with him. That means I get my traditional 6 hours of sleep and spend the rest of my time watching the incredibly peaceful look on his face...and thinking.
I think a lot when I'm there.
I've been struggling lately with the whole concept of "meant to be", and I think I have finally discovered what it is that bothers me so much about it. It's another situation in which we ascribe different criteria to different situations as a way to justify our own prejudicial ideas. Lately, this has manifested in some well-intended advice from others to "let God handle it". I did...but what happened wasn't what they expected God to do. Ergo, I clearly have not let God handle it.
I'm confused.
I guess I didn't realize that the only evidence that I am allowing God to work in my life is if I make decisions that are only completely in line with the prejudicial ideas of the people around me. And then there are the exceptions.
My cousin met her new husband in an interesting manner. It's actually an amazing story. He was in her hometown visiting with a friend who wanted to stop by a local bar. She decided at the last minute to go out with a friend because they had nothing else to do on that particular New Year's Eve. Neither one of them normally go to bars, but they happened to be there at the same time, hit it off, and within six months were married. Everyone retold this story to anyone who would listen and marveled about how "God brought them together."
It was meant to be...because clearly God put them there in that bar.
However, those same people tell a different tale about other situations that were just as unlikely to happen. Change the ancestries or the ages or locations or any other part of the story that doesn't fit their preconceived notions, and it's not longer meant to be. It's a rash decision or a mistake.
It's like when someone is late to the airport and misses a flight only to hear later on the news that the flight went down. These are the people who rave about how God protected that person and those delays were just proof of what was meant to be. If that's true, you should also be able to tell the loved ones of those who perished in the crash that the deaths were also meant to be.
But no one wants to say that.
Why do we call acts "leaps of faith" only when the outcome is what we initially desired? A risk is a risk, and sometimes they work out the way we want. Sometimes they don't. So why, then, is my faith limited to a perceived outcome? Why do we only celebrate those moments and not the fact that someone had the courage to take the leap in the first place?
For me to truly embrace that anything in life is meant to be, I have to accept the fact that everything is meant to be...regardless of the outcome. Generally, I already do that. It's just that I feel like the odd man out on this subject. Yet, if the rain falls on the just and the unjust, that's just the way it goes.
And I'm okay with that.
I think a lot when I'm there.
I've been struggling lately with the whole concept of "meant to be", and I think I have finally discovered what it is that bothers me so much about it. It's another situation in which we ascribe different criteria to different situations as a way to justify our own prejudicial ideas. Lately, this has manifested in some well-intended advice from others to "let God handle it". I did...but what happened wasn't what they expected God to do. Ergo, I clearly have not let God handle it.
I'm confused.
I guess I didn't realize that the only evidence that I am allowing God to work in my life is if I make decisions that are only completely in line with the prejudicial ideas of the people around me. And then there are the exceptions.
My cousin met her new husband in an interesting manner. It's actually an amazing story. He was in her hometown visiting with a friend who wanted to stop by a local bar. She decided at the last minute to go out with a friend because they had nothing else to do on that particular New Year's Eve. Neither one of them normally go to bars, but they happened to be there at the same time, hit it off, and within six months were married. Everyone retold this story to anyone who would listen and marveled about how "God brought them together."
It was meant to be...because clearly God put them there in that bar.
However, those same people tell a different tale about other situations that were just as unlikely to happen. Change the ancestries or the ages or locations or any other part of the story that doesn't fit their preconceived notions, and it's not longer meant to be. It's a rash decision or a mistake.
It's like when someone is late to the airport and misses a flight only to hear later on the news that the flight went down. These are the people who rave about how God protected that person and those delays were just proof of what was meant to be. If that's true, you should also be able to tell the loved ones of those who perished in the crash that the deaths were also meant to be.
But no one wants to say that.
Why do we call acts "leaps of faith" only when the outcome is what we initially desired? A risk is a risk, and sometimes they work out the way we want. Sometimes they don't. So why, then, is my faith limited to a perceived outcome? Why do we only celebrate those moments and not the fact that someone had the courage to take the leap in the first place?
For me to truly embrace that anything in life is meant to be, I have to accept the fact that everything is meant to be...regardless of the outcome. Generally, I already do that. It's just that I feel like the odd man out on this subject. Yet, if the rain falls on the just and the unjust, that's just the way it goes.
And I'm okay with that.
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