Recent conversations with a couple of friends combined with things I've found myself struggling with recently have made me think a lot about how our past affects us. It's funny, but it seems like every time I start to think I've made progress in an area something happens that makes me think maybe not as much as I thought... Maybe it's just God keeping me humble, but after managing for a few months with no issues from one I think maybe I had started to think I had it under control, which obviously meant God had to show me I'll never have it under control.
I realize it's a lesson that will probably still have to be repeated occasionally, but I discovered something this time around that I hope I remember a little more quickly in the future. To deal with wounds from the past the only way to heal is to continually give them over to a loving God. Of course much like Frodo discovered after being stabbed by the Nazgul some wounds while they heal always leave reminders. They bring with them certain reactions that are instictive because of the original pain they delivered. We pull away from the pain that we expect.
Of course even though we pull away almost instinctively we still have the final choice. We can continue to pull away and react defensively or we can face our fears and insecurities and allow God to use others to help us deal with them. I suppose that one thing that stood out to me as I personally faced some things and it was that maybe as a way of getting me ready for the next growing phase God had sent just the right people into my life to give me the reality checks I needed at the time I needed them. People who weren't afraid to say slow down, hurry up, kick it in gear or even just wait.
I think it brought me back in a full circle to something the last several months have been reinforcing. Success in life really is about the relationships we make. Not success in the "I made the Fortune 500 list" way, but success in that I accomplished things I never would or could have on my own and I did it because of the people who held me up when I was discouraged, encouraged me when I didn't see what God was doing and held out for the bigger picture they could see from their vantage point.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
God's Timing
It's a funny thing how sometimes when you are going through some of the moments that change and define you the most you somehow don't realize how important they are until you look back in hindsight. I think that's one of the interesting thing about God's timing. It's subtle. I think that's something that I've realized over the last five months especially as some of the lessons and experiences I've had over the last five years have come together and started to make sense. It's had me re-evaluating my life, the people God has sent into it and the impact they have made especially over the last four years.
In meeting up with friends I hadn't seen in a few months I realized something about God's timing. Sometimes it's not just about when new events, people or circumstances are introduced into our lives. Sometimes it's about the fact he asks you to surrender something you hold dear so that he can return it for an even greater impact in your life.
I think one of the greatest challenges I've faced came earlier this year, in the belief that God was asking me to give up something I held very dear with no guarantees for the future. It made no sense to me that at a time in my life when things seemed to be going good I was being asked to give up what I loved and was familiar with, something that I could look at and see had been a positive thing in my life. At that time as the events of two years began to come together into the events of a mere four weeks, the recurrent answer that came from a friend to my repeated question of why ended up being "It's all in God's timing."
It's an answer that seems to have repeated itself often over the following months and tonight I realized that not just the new things that come into our lives, but the renewing of old relationships as we are ready to deal with them or react to them in a different way are in God's timing as well. If we try to recapture initial moments of relationships as we know them, we lose the chance to see what can develop in God's timing. While we see our slice of time and how it impacts us if we refuse to allow God to work in his time we miss the opportunity to experience what he has in store for that relationship. Sometimes it means allowing time for it to grow and sometimes it means letting go. Ultimately it comes down to realizing that God truly does have a perfect time for everything and if we let him work things out in his time it turns out infinitely better than our timing.
In meeting up with friends I hadn't seen in a few months I realized something about God's timing. Sometimes it's not just about when new events, people or circumstances are introduced into our lives. Sometimes it's about the fact he asks you to surrender something you hold dear so that he can return it for an even greater impact in your life.
I think one of the greatest challenges I've faced came earlier this year, in the belief that God was asking me to give up something I held very dear with no guarantees for the future. It made no sense to me that at a time in my life when things seemed to be going good I was being asked to give up what I loved and was familiar with, something that I could look at and see had been a positive thing in my life. At that time as the events of two years began to come together into the events of a mere four weeks, the recurrent answer that came from a friend to my repeated question of why ended up being "It's all in God's timing."
It's an answer that seems to have repeated itself often over the following months and tonight I realized that not just the new things that come into our lives, but the renewing of old relationships as we are ready to deal with them or react to them in a different way are in God's timing as well. If we try to recapture initial moments of relationships as we know them, we lose the chance to see what can develop in God's timing. While we see our slice of time and how it impacts us if we refuse to allow God to work in his time we miss the opportunity to experience what he has in store for that relationship. Sometimes it means allowing time for it to grow and sometimes it means letting go. Ultimately it comes down to realizing that God truly does have a perfect time for everything and if we let him work things out in his time it turns out infinitely better than our timing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)