In the last month, I have had two different friends that had to await the results of medical tests that could have dramatically altered their life expectancy. In the same time frame, I also had two friends that had to wait a crazy-long time to find out if they were hired for a new job that they both really wanted. Have you ever experienced the dread of waiting to find out the answer to a potentially life-changing question mark?
Mark Twain said, “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” This quote points out the absurdity of our worries. How many of your worries actually came to fruition? For any that did, did your worries beforehand help the outcome? Like Mark Twain, most of your troubles will never even happen.
What helps in releasing your worries and feeling peace within yourself is the knowledge that God’s will is much grander, more informed and more purposeful than ours.
Trusting in a larger plan; a larger purpose; a larger choreography, one that is for your ultimate benefit, helps us ease our mind.
What about when the medical test results come back with horrific news? What about when those bad things do happen?
To answer that question we have to answer this one: Who do you think is driving the bus? Once you fully accept the will of God, then you have accepted fate and can find comfort in the course of waiting for the results of your medical test or your job interview. You can become okay with the results no matter what they happen to be. You feel anxious, angry and impatient when you believe your will and plan for your life is more important than the plan and path that has been already carved for you.
I believe that you have creative powers, can build and alter many of the circumstances in your life. You can and should help make your life great. The question of Locus of Control – whether you determine your outcomes or if your life is predestined by a higher power and no matter what, your fate will be the same – is one of those great conversations to have with your friends after about three glasses of wine. Do the decisions you make, the habits you form, the work you put in, the people you surround yourself create your life? Or is your life completely controlled by a higher power? To what extent does free will reign?
I’m here to tell you that the locus of control of your life rests with both you and your God simultaneously. When you elect to align your thoughts, words, and actions with love, with a higher power, then things start happening for you and not against you. Life happens more naturally. Your path becomes easier to see when you are working together, in tandem with your maker.
A Course in Miracles states that “Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time.” This means that your life’s purpose has been set. You will eventually reach your destinies. How long it takes you to arrive is up to you.
As for those times of trouble; times of death; times of heartache… they will come. They will come for all of us. Somebody wiser than me once said, “A calm sea never made a skilled sailor.” These life troubles are blessings from God wrapped in poop.
I was just talking to my friend, Gregg Merkel, about this very thing. Gregg suffered a severe motorcycle crash on 3/31/2012 and then started a non-profit to help victims of motorcycle crashes (Merk-331 Foundation merk331.org ).He is a living example of how tragedy can be turned into triumph.
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” – American Author Napoleon Hill
Love and Let 