Where are you? Is your life turning out the way you planned? Are all your dreams coming true or has your life turned into one bad dream after another?
There are times in our lives that we examine where we are, where we want to be going and the steps we need to take to get there.
Sometimes we find life going exactly as we planned. We go to school, get the job we want, get married, and start a family. We feel like everything is going as planned.
Then something happens.
Maybe there’s a loss of our job, breakdown of our marriage, illness or death of a loved one. Things may happen beyond our control and suddenly we feel like our life has become derailed.
Maybe nothing has gone the way you planned.
Maybe you weren’t able to get the schooling you desired, ended up in a job you don’t like, can’t find the right person to settle down with or the children haven’t come along as you’d hoped.
No matter what, achieving your goals just isn’t happening.
When you wake up in the morning, you wonder how on earth did I get here.
We all have times in our lives when things don’t end up the way we’d hoped or planned.
But where do we go from there?
My husband and I have been blessed with two children, one boy and one girl. It was when our daughter was almost two years old that we were faced with the issues of her special needs. She had been severely ill at just four months of age with chicken pox. It took her a number of months to recover. We put down the delays in her development to this, but finally began to look for more concrete answers.
This was definitely not what we expected to happen. Our son was fine and we expected our daughter to be the same.
It has been an unexpected road we have travelled, yet we wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Our daughter is full of love and much joy and delight to those around her. She still struggles with her developmental delays, yet she continues to grow and change almost daily. She loves life and she loves to learn – good thing because she has to work pretty hard – but she has taught us much, as well.
When we first began our journey with our daughter, we were given an article written by Emily Pearl Kingsley called “Welcome to Holland.” She talks about planning a trip to Italy, but arriving in Holland. Nothing was what she expected and yet the destination had its own beauty and delights. We’ve found this to be true in our lives.
This is also true in our spiritual lives.
Some things we can change, but not others.
We may find we struggle with what life has for us, yet we can find strength, peace and comfort in Jesus.
He is the only One who is constant in this world of the unexpected.
I’ve found this to be true in my life and I trust you find it true in yours.
Rev. Colleen Shearing is co-senior pastor at High Way Church.
