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This Isn't the Life I Expected

Job 17:11
“ . . . My plans are shattered, and so are the desires of my heart.”

Are you living the life you envisioned for yourself when you left school and eagerly set out to create your future? Have you accomplished all of your dreams? Has your life turned out the way you expected?

If you said “yes” to any of the questions above, you are surely an exception. Most of us are living lives that barely resemble the visions of our youth. We may be living in a state we never saw ourselves in, pursuing a career we never imagined, and coping with life reversals we could not possibly have predicted. Some of those unscheduled events in our lives we met with great joy, as my husband and I did when we learned that our first “baby” would be twins. That was a delightful and blessed reversal.

Most of life’s reversals cause us some measure of stress, and sometimes a very large measure of it. For example, having a child with a disability. You probably didn’t plan that. At the moment you discovered your child had a disability, you probably felt as Job did—your plans and desires were shattered. Or, even if you adopted a child with a disability and you thought you were fully prepared for the challenges that would come your way, sooner or later you have had to deal with broken dreams.

In your disappointment, you may have yelled at God—maybe more than a little. Wondering why this could happen to you and to your child. You may have reasoned, as Job did, that this was unjust, given your devotion to God.

Job 23:11-12
“My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.”

Ah, but the work that God can accomplish in us who love Him, through the reversals in our lives! God changes us through these challenges. He teaches us to view life differently, to lean on Him more, to trust Him more. He enables us to love in new ways, to see joy in unlikely places, and to recognize His handiwork where we did not expect to see it.

Football coach Gene Stallings says that when he realized in 1962 that his newborn son had Down syndrome, he thought his life was over. Now, he says, he can’t imagine his life without that son, and he thanks God daily for the privilege of having his son in his life. Coach Stallings has watched God use his son to touch the hearts of others in ways that he would never have been able to do without his disability. God has used him mightily.

Can we even imagine the shattering of Mary’s heart and dreams for her son Jesus when He was condemned to die? Talk about a reversal! And look how much He treasured Scripture! Look how perfectly He kept the commandments given to Moses! Look how closely He followed His Father’s steps—all the way to the cross! Not that this was easy for Jesus, who prayed,

Luke 22:42
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Death on the cross was hardly the end Mary expected for her son. Yet it was the very thing that God had planned all along—to use this terrible, shattering reversal to redeem His people. Not even death could limit the power of God in Jesus Christ! In rising from the dead, He transformed this apparent setback and gained eternal life for all who believe.

Romans 14:9
“For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.”

Let us pray:

Lord, our lives haven’t turned out the way we expected. As we face reversals that cause us stress, help us remember that You can use the apparent setbacks in our lives to accomplish Your purposes. Thank You for the ultimate reversal, Jesus’ victory over sin. May His name be glorified through the unexpected events in our lives and our responses to them. Amen.