To accept the things I cannot change...

“What do you mean my surgery has been rescheduled?” I stood in the hospital waiting room searching for the savviest of arguments I could find.  I had waited for this day for months.  My uncaffeinated, empty stomach growled at the woman in triage.  How can you do this to me? How dare you swoop into my life in this manner like a 10 pound bowling ball knocking down all my neatly placed pins.  I’ve worked hard on arranging and placing my life in an order and one stop sign has sent me in a tail spin.

I stayed stuck in my anger.  Like a Charlie brown comic with squiggles and exclamation marks looming in bold print over my head. 

I begrudgingly accepted at some point.  I can’t recall when.  I didn’t embrace.  I allowed the circumstance to take a chip off my shoulder in this one minuscule moment in life.

I’ve gotten better at acceptance the years since.  There’s been more than one unexpected bowling ball barreling down my lane, knocking me off centre.  I’ve learned to ask for grace.  To soften my heart.  To redirect my route.  But, most of all, to trust that God’s got it, will redeem it, and in all ways, is in control.

So, six practical lessons in this learning curve towards acceptance.  When you find yourself thrown off course by an uninvited guest or circumstance in your walk with God. When life goes much differently than you had planned and schemed:

1)      When you are done battling and grappling with the inevitability that this thing can’t be different,  turn it over to God in prayer, daily.  That he will handle it in a more perfect way than you could ever dream or imagine.

2)      Trust that God will give you the strength and the wisdom you need to handle your unexpected course. Lean into it.  His faithfulness will amaze you.

3)      Be proud of it.  Of where you are-regardless of your circumstances.  If they are different than you had imagined, allow God to show you the beauty in your knocked down pins. You, beautiful one, have nothing to be ashamed of.  You are God’s child.  Rescued and loved.  If you are having trouble believing that, ask God to show you.

4)      If you remain stuck in the inability to accept your circumstances pray for God’s direction and discernment to make a decision that is in line with his will for your life.

5)  Swim in grace.  Keep your chin up.  Your neighbour is plagued with less than stellar circumstances too.  We are all very good at hiding them.  Life is full of suffering and imperfections that make Jesus' face all the more beautiful.

6)      Trust that perhaps, just maybe, there is a larger purpose in your new found path.  Maybe God brought it into your life.  Maybe he didn’t.  But, he promises, promises you that he is in it, intimately, passionately, faithfully, and will never, ever let you go.

~ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28