Imagine Me

Imagine a guy who falls in love with his dream girl. He courts the said lady, does everything right and convinces her to marry him. The marriage takes place, a very wonderful affair that is full of great memories, family and friends, the best thing that ever happened to him.

Two weeks after his marriage the wife falls ill and dies of some infection. He only got to spend two weeks with the love of his life. Do you expect such a guy to be thankful to God for his life? How would you feel if your dream crumbled before your eyes even before you satisfactorily savoured it?

Every man walks through life hoping for the best, no one likes to think that things may not turn out the way they think they will. But the word of God tells us Job after being afflicted by disaster upon disaster was asked by his wife to curse God so that he would receive peace when God was forced to kill him for being so rude. To this Job asked of his wife “shall we expect good only from God and not evil?”(Job 2:10).

In short he was asking her to look at all things with sober judgement, not expecting unrealistic things, not being hopeless either, but having the right measure of balance. Have hope in the right measure, dream of greatness but also understand that even though that may be your plan you have no idea what the plan of God for your life is.

Many people have broken dreams, life gave them a piece of bread rather than a tasty piece of chocolate cake that they hoped for. That accounts for 60-70% of the human population. Life happens to us all. Man starts his journey thinking he is going to that destination and when he gets there he realises that’s not where he thought he would be.

Are we saying then that God is unkind or mean to us. That he is just playing a game with our lives, allowing us to have dreams and goals when he knows he will still have his way in the end and all our dreaming and scheming will have been for nothing?

To answer that I will point you to some words Jehovah himself said to Job when Job’s dreams and all he knew were destroyed to nothingness:  “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand... “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it, and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?(Job 38:4-13)

The point he was making was that we don’t know the things of God and therefore cannot fully comprehend why he does the things he does and things happen the way they do.

But if we have sober judgement in all things, hoping for the best but expecting the worst then we will accept whatever God’s plan has in store for us with minimal heartbreak. A death will be less painful, a sickness will not be as disastrous and a broken marriage will hurt but won’t be the end of the world.

Why does man continuously expect life to continue as it is for the most part when life has continuously proven itself to be unpredictable for the most part? And then he cries, kicks and screams when life turns upside down just as he knew deep in his heart it might.

Call me a pessimist but I try to keep a proper balance in my thinking; I want to be rich but I understand God has a plan already laid out for me that may not take me there. He knows all things from the beginning to the end of my story. I on the other hand have no idea so I make my own plans. Whose plans will prevail, the plans of a man or those of a God?

Through all doubts, perspirations, persecutions, trials and temptations the best thing for man to do is keep his faith in the plan God has for his or her life. It is written” I [Jehovah] take no pleasure in the death of anyone” (Ezekiel 18:32). Like we say it in Chichewa, “God loves everyone”. Sure his plan might bring you suffering and strife, the best thing you can do is adapt to it, learn from it and grow. If you struggle you struggle against God’s plan and guess who will wind up hurt in the end? You.

Trust in the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength! In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. Every time your heart cries is an opportunity for you to draw close to God, if you let pain draw you away from him then you might just miss the lesson. Take advantage of the situation. It’s an opportunity, make the most of it. Take your broken heart to him, scream and shout your sorrow at his feet, let him know your anger and frustration. But keep your eyes open so you might learn from the experience.

I wish you peace, wealth, prosperity, joy and love. But above all these I wish you strength that you may be steadfast when your dreams are derailed or frustrated or never come to pass. Be strong also when trials and persecutions come for doubtlessly they will, it’s part of man’s curse to see suffering you see. I pray you will survive your heartbreaks and will not let evil take you over because of an act of nature or an act of God. Trust in He who knows best and keep in constant prayer even when you don’t feel like it, you will be just fine.