My friend gave me a list of statements of affirmation and asked me to look at them and see which one spoke to me. I would memorize these and say them like a mantra to encourage myself. Some of the things I’ve written recently are because of those statements. When I first looked at the list and I read number one it said this, “nothing has gone wrong”.  I stopped and I couldn’t get past it. Because it seems impossible to believe this statement. All kinds of things have gone wrong in my life. Or have they?

Have you ever been hiking? You know most hiking trails are not smooth straight paths, instead they have to wind around obstacles and different land structures that you can’t traverse. There’s also not just one level generally you’re going up in elevation and down so there’s challenge along the way. Now if you choose instead to go walking in a city around let’s say at a lake. I live in Lakeland and there is a lot of lakes as the name of the city indicates. These are kind of well-worn paths that are flat because we’re in Florida so there’s not as much elevation. You just go in a circle, nice, even, and smooth, on the sidewalk. So here you see two kinds of paths. One a path where there’s challenge and obstacles and honestly, it’s a higher difficulty level. And then you see another path which also can be travelled yet it’s smooth and easy. 

I’m starting to realize that my life was never meant to be that sidewalk path and that’s not wrong because it wasn’t meant to be that. It’s not a mistake.  You see saying that nothing has gone wrong isn’t saying that life was the way I thought it should be. That statement nothing has gone wrong doesn’t mean that everything has gone the way I think it should go or been easy. It’s simply indicating that the way it has gone is the way it was supposed to go. That is hard to accept sometimes, all the time really but I need to accept this. I am the hiking trail. I’m not the smooth path. My life was never meant to be this from A to B, easy experience, instead it was meant to have challenges and God knew about this. This isn’t a series of mistakes that he didn’t anticipate, he knew where the rock would be in the trail.  He knew the path would have to wind around obstacles in certain places. He knew where a bridge would have to be built because there was a waterway that couldn’t be avoided.  He knew where there would have to be some kind of natural formation of steppingstones because I would have to find a way up to rise above.  He knew everything before. Nothing went wrong in my life, nothing was a surprise to God, nothing was out of what he knew would happen. All of it both the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, the easy and the extremely difficult is all working to take me closer to where he intended me to be. Maybe it’s not the path I would have chosen, it is the path my actions took me on. Still having said that nothing went wrong.

Now I’m not saying that God intends for us to go through every situation that we’re in. Some of the situations that we’re in it’s because of our own choices. Actually, most of them are because of our own choices.  However, he knew that we were going to take that route ahead of time and he planned for it. None of it surprises him. This is mind boggling to me, and maybe to you as well, because I want to look at the mistakes I’ve made as wrong moves, but God doesn’t see it that way. Instead, every single step has in some way caused me to grow and mature.  They have all moved me to experience things I needed to experience. This is not what you want to hear is it. You want to hear that God intends our life after we give our heart to him to be this beautiful lake sidewalk path easy to walk and move forward in. I’m here to tell you that this is not the reality that we face. Although everything doesn’t always go right, nothing has gone wrong.

Because God can take everything and somehow twist it for your good. That’s another phrase that comes down a little further on my list. Both of these truths work together and when combined offer a beautiful statement: nothing has gone wrong, and God will use every twist and turn for my good. He will work it all out ultimately to bring me closer to his heart, to strengthen me, and he does it with me, I don’t have to do it alone. Even when I make my bed in the depths, he’s with me. You see even when I’ve turned and gone my own way he stayed and remained and lovingly drew me back to the better path. But even those wayward times, God uses them and makes them right and makes them something that brings about growth and good in my life. Because of my divorce I learned that I serve a God who will be to me everything I need whether it’s a father or a husband or a lover or a friend. He taught me but there’s no pain or heartache that he can’t mend and heal. He showed me that he was faithful even when I was not. When I’ve stopped and gone my own way, he showed me time and again that he can bring me back and that he’s always drawing me. What a testimony to me of God’s faithfulness and love. I’m not going to look back on my life with regret and be consumed with what ifs that really don’t matter. I’m not going to look back and say those were wrong and that those things never should have been because they were but they’re not where I am now. And all of those things even the ones that were hard or negative or difficult were working in me, they were growing me.

So, I can boldly stand today and tell you that nothing has gone wrong and that every twist in my life God has turned ultimately for his glory and for my good. I hope that you grab a hold of this and say the same. Life is not fair, it is not easy, and it does not make any sense. None of our roads are ever going to be that beautiful smooth level sidewalk life. Our journeys are often arduous uphill climbs with a lot of obstacles and challenges along the way.

We do not walk alone, as a believer we do not walk in our own strength, and we can keep our head held high and walk forward in faith because we know that he will direct our steps. Even when we step off the path or maybe lose our way, we know he can bring us back. 

Let me tell you a secret. Have you ever been at a really high point, and you look out and you can see the whole path you took to get there. It’s really an amazing experience. When you were in the middle of that journey you certainly couldn’t have imagined the beauty and the blessing that you would get when you’re at that lookout point, and you can see where you come from. You don’t stand there and look back and criticize the path instead you look at the beauty and feel amazed that you made it to where you are. That’s what I want to challenge you to do today. Instead of looking back and being frustrated at the path that was taken or the twist and turns made along the way.  I challenge you to find joy because no matter the way you went or what you faced, you are where you are now, not where you were.  You have made it further down road. So, keep walking forward, there may be a lookout point up ahead when you can celebrate the journey not regret it.  Just set your face and your eyes on him and remind yourselves nothing has gone wrong and that no matter what you face everything God will twist and turn for your good. Be affirmed today by that. I know I am.