Life rarely turns out exactly as we expected. And often there are many heartaches and disappointments along the way. But it’s also true that many times joy is still found through the many unexpected twists and turns of our story.
It’s only natural to dream and imagine how our life might turn out.
For instance, we might have a vision for our career, to be married and have a certain number of children, or even simply what part of the country we want to live in and grow old.
And initially, we invest a lot of time and energy to make our dreams a reality, which is how it should be in many respects. God has placed deep desires in our heart and it’s our responsibility to cultivate and manifest these as best we can.
But often our visions are also mixed with our desires for control. We want our dreams to come true exactly how we imagine them, and on our own timeline.
But there’s much in life we cannot control. And eventually we can’t run from the disappointment that life has not turned out as we had imagined.
While there’s grief here, there are often many unexpected joys as well.
We look back and realize we’ve met people, gone places, and had experiences we couldn’t have planned ourselves in a million years. And we wouldn’t trade it for the world, even though it came with many scars along the way.
And soon a spirit of gratitude grows as we realize God has brought us exactly where we need to be and much closer to the true desires of our heart.
It’s not the path we would’ve chosen ourselves. But we can’t deny the joy that has come all the same.
And it’s a joy we miss when we continue to demand life to play out exactly on our terms.
Accept the many unexpected turns of life. And stay open to the fullness of joy God has for you. Things often turn out much better than we expected or planned.
Photo by Tai’s Captures on Unsplash
