A wonderful group of church women once asked me: “Has God ever failed you before?” It took some really deep thinking to get me to realize he hasn’t. He’s always been there for me when I’ve needed it. He has always provided me with opportunities and with more than I deserve. He’s given me so many chances, and continues to provide for me.
In September 2012, I was involved in a roll over car accident. At 65 mph, my car flipped and rolled a total of four times. Rolling into the ditch, and then over a barb wire fence. It ended up 30 feet off of the road. And I walked away only bruised. God truly has a plan for me indeed.
It is so easy for us now to focus on all of our accomplishments. How many medals we have won, how many awards we’ve received, how many scholarships we have earned – the list only continues to grow. And we all seem to do it. I know I do, anyway. At times, it seems that we do this more in college than any other time in our lives.
We focus too much on ourselves and our futures and not on what actually matters most. We think too much about our college life, the careers we will have after earning our degree, getting married, and having a family someday. Yeah, we need to focus in school and our futures are exciting mainly because of the unknown, but often we think too much about it. We act like we are the ones that have it in control and planned out and in all honesty, that isn’t true. We might like to think it is us accomplishing all of this, but it isn’t us really. And it’s easy to forget this sometimes. In truth our lives are already planned out, from start to finish. Our lives have been molded, written down from beginning to end.
God has everything in control and we often forget this. Often, we allow our emotions, and worries consume our entire day. We sometimes waste hours and sometimes even days overthinking and filling our lives with anxiety. Philippians 4:6 (ESV) reminds us: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Some days, we need more quiet time than others, and sometimes, we just need to take a moment and breathe. Our lives might seem stressful, and I’m not saying they aren’t, but someone once told me, “God doesn’t bring you to anything you can’t handle or overcome.” As cliché as this might sound, it has stuck with me from the moment I heard it. And it’s true. You’re still breathing, you’re still living. Life can definitely seem like a battle sometimes and that’s because sometimes we don’t understand what God is telling us. In these situations, all we can really do is open our Bibles, look to God, and pray.
