New beginnings

Dear Emily,

It was going to be perfect. Your aunt and uncle were going to open a restaurant and you were going to work there with the boy you were dating. You would be spending the summer in your favorite place with your favorite people.

Bliss.

But then the restaurant fell through. Your perfect summer wasn’t going to happen. You had no idea what you were going to do; your previous plans were all you could think about, all you wanted.

I wish you had known that patience and trust would soothe your heartache and open a new way. But you didn’t have mental space to be patient, to trust. All you could think about was what you had lost.

It wasn’t that you didn’t have other options. Several people suggested an internship that could have been promising. But it didn’t interest you. It was at an organization you already knew; you wanted something different.

Still, through the angst and frustration, the suggestion kept coming: Be patient. Trust. And apply for that internship! Finally, you got the message that this might be God-directed. You didn’t quite have the trust thing down, though, because even though you applied, you kept hoping you wouldn’t get the internship.

Well, guess what? You did get it. You might not have felt very trusting, but when you got the news, you at least allowed yourself to realize that perhaps God was in control after all. Perhaps what you wanted wasn’t the best for you. Perhaps God did have something better. It was hard to accept this idea gracefully, but God was at work in your heart even if you didn’t realize it at first. Be patient. Trust. How could a God who is wholly good set you up for anything but good?

“God creates and governs the universe, including man. The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them.” 1 You’d read that quote a hundred times before, and I wish you’d written it on a note card and taped it to your mirror. I wish you’d seen then what you see now: That with God governing the universe, you can never be out of place.

Now it’s so clear that with patience, and trust in God, life unfolds exactly the way it needs to. Those moments of insecurity and doubt about your right place have given way to the surety of always being where you need to be, regardless of where you are.

Like that internship. As you’ve let go of your fears and your own plans, you’ve been able to see that this summer has been exactly what you needed. New friendships. Spiritual growth. And though you couldn’t have known that your relationship with your boyfriend would end, here you are in a city where you have room for a fresh start. No, you didn’t have the overview—but God did.

You are so blessed and loved, Emily. And God is always leading the way. I don’t have to tell you to trust that; now, you know it.

With love,

Emily

Posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2012 at 12:49 pm | Follow responses with the RSS feed
Topics: Right Place | Tags: break-up, trust, trust in God