I have been thinking back over my life a lot lately.  It’s not something I do that often, nor do I enjoy.  I find that I usually end up feeling like a failure and that I have wasted much on my life on things that just don’t matter that much.  However, based on some reading I have been doing and my stage of life. I have taken the time to look back and reflect.  There have been highs, like meeting and marrying my husband, having two healthy and beautiful daughters.  There have been lows, like job losses,  and watching my dad fight and lose his battle with cancer.  There have been countless blessings and we have seen God provide for our needs in amazing ways.  There have also been some tragedies, like watching good friends lose their children to horrible diseases.  I have experienced amazing times of worship and growth and had the opportunity to serve in some amazing ministries in my church.    Bottom line I have had some really good times and some times I wasn’t sure we’d ever make it through.   Some of these events have been life changing, some not.

When I started this process of looking back, I had planned on picking a few key life events that really impacted or changed the direction of my life.  I even went so far as to pick some of them.  But the more I thought about it and the more I tried to write about it, I came to realize the flaw in my plan.  There are way too many events in my last 50 years to pick only a few.  Plus I found that sometimes, the seemingly smallest events, have had the greatest impact.  Another pretty cool thing I realized was that in every single one of these events people were involved.  The things I remember the most are not the events but the people I met, grew closer to, learned to love.  God uses things, events and opportunities to put people in our lives.  Some of those people are only around for a season.  Some will be with us for a lifetime.  Some that you thought you lost touch with, will swing back around and become even closer than before.

As you and I go through life we are and will continue to be confronted with opportunities to follow and obey God or to follow our own path.   Some of them are easy no brainer decisions.  Some will be gut wrenching and seeming impossible.  These are the decisions that not only direct our lives, but also our walk with God.  But the hidden blessing in all of life’s events, I believe are the people we get to meet along the way.  I’m going to share a couple of examples (a big gut wrenching decision and a seemingly small one) to try and explain what I mean.

One of the biggest and hardest decisions our family ever made was the choice for me to walk away from a really good job, which provided for our family financially very well.  It was one of the few times in my life that I can look back and know without a shadow of doubt, that God told me and I quote “quit your stupid job!”  But it was still an extremely difficult choice for our family.  To complicate the matter, I knew for sure I had heard from God, my husband had not.  He had to trust God and me, without hearing what I had.  To make an extremely long story short – God provided in an amazing fashion for our family and it’s financial needs.  But the other cool thing was the people he put into my life through that and because of that decision.  I can’t even begin to mention all the people I have met and now call friends because of this choice.  To name a few groups of people:  KCLC, Mom’s in Prayer, Upward Sports, VBS, etc.  This could be a really long list! That decision to obey God, enabled me to become more involved in our church and my children’s schools.  I would not know some of you reading this today, if it were not for that choice. And some of you are really more like family than friends!

On the flip side, a smaller decision (my husband will more than likely disagree with) was saying “yes” to serve in the student ministry at church.  Has it always been easy-NO!  Has it always been rewarding-YES!  Some of my greatest growth spiritually can be tied to this decision to obey.  Back to the people part, I have met and had the pleasure of getting to know a ton of students, parents and other leaders, even people that live in different states and countries.  I honestly, can’t imagine my life today without the friends I have made through that simple yes.

Here is my point – say “yes”.  Go ahead, take the risk and follow where God leads.  The blessings and reasons may not be immediately clear, but they will come.  Why not take some time today to reflect on your current season of life and the amazing people God has put in it.  Not all seasons are easy, not all people are easy.  But they are all placed there on purpose!

I’ll leave you with this familiar passage from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

² a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

I’d love to hear what you have or are going to say “yes” to!