Sometimes, when life throws you a little curveball, you just need someone to call you out on the fact that you're forgetting truths you know.
She might have been stern with me... I'm so glad I have friends like that.
I had an experience a couple of weeks ago that was a game changer.
Do you know the kind?
When things feel turned upside down?
And the next day I was sad and confused and unsettled and worried.
That night one of my favorite people on the planet said something so profound, so simple, so true:
That was it.
Period.
End of discussion.
End of the tears.
And I woke up the next morning enveloped in the most unbelievable peace.
And while we can do things to alter that story,
And while others can do things to alter that story,
God is the editor.
He intervenes when He needs to.
He adds a sentence here and there.
He erases.
He fixes.
But the story is all part of His plan.
And I simply do not believe in a God who turns a page and gets surprised.
I do not believe, for example, He spent any time last week saying, "Wow. I'm shocked. This is so not how I thought this was going to turn out for her." (And not just because God wouldn't use "so" like that.)
No.
Rather I believe in a God, my Heavenly Father, who is so involved in every detail of my life that He spent time this entire last year orchestrating things in such a way to have them play out exactly how He needed them to.
Exactly how He knew I needed them to too.
He intervened as needed.
He added a sentence here and there.
He edited.
To get the story just right.
When I can let myself believe it, I feel the deepest sense of peace.
There is a plan for your life.
There is a story that is yours.
JUST. YOURS.
And your story is where it's supposed to be.
The chapter.
The page.
The very words.
He knew exactly where you'd be right now.
And the beautiful promised ending of your story is already written.
Your future isn't any different today than it was yesterday.
And, oh, that future is good.
SO. GOOD.
I promise that is true.
Blessed be the Lord... there hath not failed ONE WORD of all his GOOD PROMISE
1 Kings 8:56
Blessed by the Lord, indeed.
What He has spoken, He has spoken.
It is already written.
Even when it doesn't feel like you can believe it...
It's still true. That's how truth works.
That's how God works.
Laurel Christensen grew up in California, Kentucky and Missouri. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from Brigham Young University which she received after serving in the Riverside California Mission. She has spent most of her career at Deseret Book Company where she worked for several years as the Director of Entertainment, producing shows like The Forgotten Carols and launching and managing Jericho Road, among other artists. She is currently the Vice President of Product Development and also oversees the Time Out for Women program, spending many weekends on the road producing Time Out events. Laurel has a Masters degree in Communications Management and thinks it would be fun to someday be called “Professor”. She is the author of several talk CDs and books for young women.
