It's about time!

Sarah finally wrote a gorgeous, thoughtful, brave and determinedly feminine account of the big news in her life! About time, girl!

Her story is yet another reminder of the lesson I'm learning right now: things ARE always going to go "wrong", and rather than wallow in the unfairness of it all, I have to look for the Lesson, whether that's a lesson of faith, or courage or humility or patience or or or...

And here's the hardest part of it: Unless I learn that lesson, things are not going to change for me.

It's a hard pill to swallow -- that sour one with the words "life will be hard" emblazoned on its side. I never thought it would be. Only recently has the precious bubblegum-pink bubble I had blown up around me popped.

And thank Goodness it has! The more I blew up that bubble, the more it made me miserable when things didn't work out!

It sounds simplistic I know, but the day I realised that things were never going to go according to my plan, I surrendered control over EVERYTHING to the Great Upstairs. And from that day forth, I began to breathe a little easier. People told me I was beaming out light. I felt joy and peace even in the face of crappy things, or at least I tried to. I started trying to enjoy the drive (which is handy 'cos none of us is driving anyway).

Sarah talks about having faith in God's plan for her even when it looked like the worst plan ever (going back home, living with her parents at the age of 25, with no job/college prospects and a broken heart). It's a testimony to God's quirky sense of humour on the one hand, and His kindness on the other. Even though God may tut quietly to Himself when he sees me pouting (cue dramatic "whhhhyyyyy meeeeeee?!" moment and God saying, "um, why NOT you?"), He does everything possible to make my hard landing as soft as possible. He sends in reinforcements. In Sarah's case, it was her parents, and eventually sweet sweet Jed. While God probably won't make my problems magically disappear, even though He can, He never lets me handle them on my own.

It isn't easy to do His bidding, to which Sarah will readily attest I think. But had she kicked mud in God's eye, and said, "Thanks, but no thanks Dood," I doubt she would be basking in the profound, unexpected happiness she's found today. And, to top it all off, (and this goes to His quirky sense of humour), she found all her happiness in the one place she really disliked: Home!

I'll leave you with this one little thing I found in the devotional I'm trying to read everyday (ugh, discipline):

"Any time we want to move forward, obstacles are going to get in the way. And God's Word teaches us that we should expect nothing less. H.G. Wells asked, 'What on earth would a man do with himself if something didn't stand in his way?' Why would he make such a comment? Because adversity is our friend, even though it doesn't feel that way. Each obstacle we overcome teaches us about our strengths and weaknesses. It shapes us, makes us wise and more confident. The greatest people in history were those who faced the most difficult challenges with courage, and rose to the occasion."

Lest you think I'm getting too serious, here's how I picture facing adversity!


-x-
aarti




Yippee!

-x-
aarti