Were You Invited To This Party?

When was your last Road to Damascus moment?  You know.  You’re plodding along.  Okay plodding along doesn’t sound right.  More like lopping along.  Okay that doesn’t sound right either. I’m sure most of us would like to think we live our lives on a more deliberate plane than plodding or lopping so let’s just say you’re living your life, minding your own business when seemingly out of the blue, the bottom drops out.  Really?  Is that allowed?   You ponder.  Is this what Saul felt when he was knocked off his horse, blinded for three days, and then wakes up a new person with a new mission and a new name.  Paul?  The S is changed to a P and now he is going to be called Paul for ever and ever.  

Once we’re over the initial shock that we’re facing an issue we hadn’t planned on, now what?  Can we recognize that an unplanned obstacle is a possible gift or would we prefer to sit around contemplating how long the misery is going to last?  After all, hadn’t we set down our plans, mapped out our route and dotted all our i’s and crossed all our t’s?  The big picture was very clear.  All we had to do was the work. That was until you know what came and took the wind out of our sails and we were forced to do some serious shifting not only in our thinking but in our behavior going forward. 

We question:  are we supposed to be learning something from an unplanned experience?  What happens if we step aside and allow what’s below the surface to be presented to us?  Could we accept the fact that a detour could hold something better that we can’t see now?  Is it even possible this might be a sign that someone who has a better idea in mind for us is jumping in and taking over for a bit while we relinquish some of our death grip on everything we do.  It happens.  We moan and groan when we are thwarted only to realize that, through that lovely thing called hindsight, the detour was pretty good, even better, dare I say it, then our own plans. 

Of course, then there is always the fork in the road.  

🌹

Marian