Up until about a month ago, my life was going great. I had a solid group of friends (so I thought), I was excited for school to start, I was talking to a guy that I truly saw a future with. My prayers were going a lot like, "Thank You, Lord for giving me these things and these people in my life." A lot of thanking God for what He had given me within the last year. And then, all of a sudden, things went downhill. All of my "friends" up and decided out of nowhere that they did not want to be my friends any longer, and the guy I had been talking to told me he does not want anything serious, which ended things with him. Now, I am not talking about one or two of my closet friendships ending; I am telling you that every single friendship I had made within the last year came crashing down in a fiery end within two weeks.

It is a funny thing how God works if you really think about it. I started thinking back to the time all of this happened, I had re-dedicated my life to God because I realized I was not living a life worthy of calling myself a Christian, and I knew I needed to change. I prayed for God to change me into to woman I need to be, to the woman He created me to be. I do not believe in coincidences, as I am a firm believer that God has a reason for everything. I have always been told that God gives us what He knows we need; however, I had never really thought about the fact that sometimes, what we need is for Him to take away. To take away those individuals in which are going to hinder us in the next step of our life- for God to wreck our plans before our plans wreck us.

Think about this- what would your life look like if you had control. Where would you be? Who would you be dating? What college would you be attending, if any? I can tell you this about my life. If I was in control of my life, I would have married the guy I dated when I was a senior in high school, I would have been married with a kid or two by now, and I would either be so unhappy with my life or divorced at 21 years old, and I would not have come to college at all. At each moment in my life where I had plans for the future, God said, "No, no, my child," and redirected me to something much greater than I could have ever dreamed of. When God takes away from our life, it is so easy to be deeply hurt and mourn the loss of a friendship or relationship; however, I have started to think back to all of the times God told me "no," and I started to look at my life and how it is now and see the greatness that has come out of those losses and disappointments.

Not everyone you meet in your life is destined to be in it for the rest of your time here on Earth, as hard as that is to accept. Every single person you meet in your life serves a greater purpose in which I do not think I can truly fathom or even attempt to understand. Rather than being sad about things you have lost and asking God "why me?" remember that we praise a Father of compassion and the God of comfort, who comforts us in all of our troubles, so that we can comfort others in trouble with the comfort in which we have received. We are told that if we are distressed, it is for our comfort and salvation. So, not only does God take things away from us in order to redirect us to something much better than we can ever imagine, but He allows us to struggle so we can be comforted by Him, which in turn, allows us to show others that same comfort, love, and compassion in which we have received. This is saying that God will continue to give and He will continue to take away, but He will always continue to comfort us in our troubles. Only God can turn a mess into a message.