A New Perspective on Life: Knowing Our Importance and Trusting God's Timing

I had a dream last night that made a big impact on me. I’ve been thinking about it all day. I saw my life. Not as it is, but instead as a round checker piece being played on a checker board. I wasn’t the only piece on the board, but there were several others. Actually, I was surrounded by checker pieces. I was one of many. I saw the actual hand of God reach down and begin to move and shuffle certain pieces around me. I knew the one red checker piece I was looking at symbolized my life and the others around me were relationships I have in my life now. I couldn’t tell you who they were right off hand, I just knew that what I was looking at was a picture of how God had moved people into my life. It was the people in and around my life. There was divine purpose involved in every move of His hand. The sense I had was that each piece was in the exact and perfect place for God’s purpose to unfold. In that moment as I looked at my life being displayed on this checker board, God began to show me several different things.

First of all, I realized that this thing I call “my life” is a very small part of a huge plan. It wasn’t that my life was any less important, I just saw it from a different perspective. It was as if I thought I was the only checker piece on the board and I was shocked to see that there were others, lots of others involved. It is good for us to realize that our lives aren’t only about ourselves. This keeps us from living in self-pity and helps us to have the perspective that life is about others, not just our personal wants and needs. What we tend to forget is how important our life really is to others. We get caught up in the things we need and want, or wish we had, when God has placed us right in the middle of His perfect plan. That plan is not about us getting everything we think we need. A large part of it is how our life fits into others around us. The role we play in other’s lives is huge. We tend to forget this. Selfishness often sneaks into my own heart and stops me from being everything God desires me to be in the lives of those around me. Just like you, I play lots of roles in my life. A daughter, sister, friend, coworker, teacher, and aunt are a few of them. Each role is different than the other and we help fulfill someone else’s life in each one. If we choose the way of self-pity, we tend to isolate ourselves and the relationships we are meant to fulfill are left on the back burner. We so easily get consumed in our own lives that we forget we are made for community. We aren’t made to live life alone, but walking with the other relationships that God has divinely put in our lives. When things aren’t going our way, sometimes God’s answer is not to pick up our checker piece and move it. Sometimes we need to stay right where we are at. It’s not about what we need, but we have to realize where God has placed us has a much bigger purpose than ourselves. If we can get our eyes off of ourselves and begin to see the need in others around us, to be a blessing to them and stop living in self-pity, we will indeed begin to see our lives as God wants us to

Ok, this next one really gets the best of me. It is God’s timing verses our timing. Sometimes my impatience gets the best of me. There are things in all of our hearts we want to happen. We all have dreams we want to take place in our lives. Waiting for those things to happen probably produces more character in us than if they were to happen in our timing. Waiting does incredible things on the inside of us!! It is NOT fun! Sometimes we wonder why God hasn’t moved us on to the next stage of our lives when there is a purpose in the waiting. It’s especially hard when He has put things inside of us that are from Him that we want to do in our lifetime. We often want to rush it. What a reminder to trust His leadership and timing in our lives. To know that His hand is the One that is making the moves can bring such a peace inside of us. We can trust Him….we can trust Him with our entire lives! When His response is simply to wait, or if He says “not yet,” we know it is for our benefit. Even in the waiting, we are being formed and prepared for what God wants to do next in our life. He is always doing something in us! Knowing He is good is enough for us to trust His decisions in our lives. May we not get offended at what we do or don’t have in our lives. He is good and knows what is best! Sometimes this is all we have to cling to when we don’t understand the situations that are taking place in our lives. And really, that’s all we need to know. His love for us is enough.

Lastly, I hope you know how incredibly important your life is. Some may feel alone, others surrounded by others, yet with a sense of emptiness. God wants to remind us of His purpose for us, that we aren’t meant to live life feeling like we are a gerbil on a wheel. Before time began, so much thought was put into your life. And you are one of those checker pieces that God has strategically placed in the position you are in. It’s not easy sometimes, but trust that your life is bigger than the things you see. You are not only needed, but so important and valuable to this journey we call life.