Where is Your Story Going?

Tunneling Through Life

We nervously approached our court day, and then the judge loudly banged his gavel and announced we could begin our lives over. It was both heart-wrenching and heart-relieving all at once. Even though we never intended for a breakup to happen, our relationship, in fact, ended after much confusion, frustration, and pain. The prolonged tenseness was released, like coming out of a dark tunnel.  

The darkness we endured during the last days (or years) of our marriage may have lingered longer than we would have liked, but the light ahead was surely dawning. In December 2016, “the world’s longest and deepest [train] traffic tunnel” was opened to passengers in Switzerland. Running through the Alps for a total of 94.349 miles and traveling at a speed of 155 miles per hour, the Gotthard Base Tunnel must be a scary ride! The light at the end was most likely much welcomed. We can understand how this would feel. We have experienced our own scary “tunnel.”

Once we reached our destination as a single-again woman, the light was almost blinding. We had to “blink” several times to readjust. We just were not expecting our future to suddenly be so stark. It caused feelings many of us were never contemplating. So what did we do? We naturally panicked, quite understandable in such a situation. But we knew we weren’t the only ones who experienced this phenomenon.

Hurdles in Our Way

After getting over our initial response, knowing how to handle life was another difficulty. And this is where the problem began of sabotaging ourselves and our future. Of course, we didn’t just sit down and say, “Today I think I will block anything good that might happen to me.” No, we wanted the opposite. So what happened?

Consciously or subconsciously, we sometimes stand in our own way to avoid something great that could happen in our lives. We are afraid to face the potential good. If we stop to think about it, could we identify some of these hurdles:

• Skipped out on a job interview for no good reason
• Made repeated excuses for not joining a new hobby group
• Gave no attention to studying for a college entrance exam
• Avoided cleaning out the clutter in the house

All of these kinds of acts damage our intentions of moving ahead with our lives. They do us no good at all. They only stall us from finding meaning and purpose. Once we decide we deserve to have a great life--which we most certainly do--we can start to build momentum in that direction. We won’t any longer sit back and wonder, “How in the world does that woman get so many opportunities?” “How does she do it?” The answer is she doesn’t impair her chances. She doesn’t hold back when she wants something good. She chooses to jump over the hurdle instead of letting it hold her back.    

We all have a story. Have you ever seen a movie or read a fiction story where the creator gave the reader options for an ending? You got to choose how it would go to your own liking. Our story is the same. We have the ability to change the outcome as it best fits our own situation. Your story will not be the same as the woman next to you. Nor should it be. We each have numerous choices to create a life that will make a difference to ourselves and, more importantly, to affect others in an encouraging and positive way. What ending will you choose?

The One Who Knows You

God also has a creation story just about you. It sums up just how important you are to Him:

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous--how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed” Psalm 139:14-16 NLT.