Everything Happens For A Reason
“Sometimes God will inconvenience you in order to help somebody else. Instead of getting frustrated when our plans don’t work out, we need to remember that it’s not all about us. Maybe God has you there on purpose to let your light shine. He’s counting on you to be a good influence on someone else.” – Joel Osteen
I read this quote online months ago & it’s popped in my mind on almost a daily basis since then. I don’t follow Joel Osteen (a friend of mine reposted it on FB), and I’m not suuuper religious, but I translated this quote to apply to me.
I find it pretty spectacular how certain words, music, or art can leave such lasting impressions. Especially because -how many quotes a day do we scroll through on FB, Instagram, Pinterest & whatever else…
For something to stick, is a big deal. And this one stuck.
I am THE believer in the saying: “Everything happens for a reason”. No matter what I go through & then look back at – it always makes sense. Always. Every instinct I have, moving away, changing, jobs, new friends, relationships, decisions I religiously believe happens for a reason & that’s what I use as motivation not to question myself too much.
Having that belief also helps me worry less. When I make what appears to be a large decision to most people (moving to Dubai before ever seeing it), I have loads of confidence in my decision because I know that’s what I feel is my next step – and it’s happening for a reason.
When I get to Dubai, and am having an experience that is nothing like I imagined, I have in the back of my mind that it’s happening to me for a reason. That keeps me calm. Okay with the process. But eager to figure out “why”. The lightbulb moment.
The problem I noticed, and how this quote changed my mind a little, is that sometimes something that happens isn’t for ME. Or for YOU. It happened for someone else. The explanation might not be there for me to see.
To help this make sense – I was always so concerned and now realizing selfish, waiting to see how each decision would play out and how it would benefit ME. What the hell is that?! (Writing this down is making me embarrassed.)
Everything happens for a reason, but that benefit might not apply to me. I always thought: “Oh that happened to me so I could meet so-and-so” “Ohhhh that happened to me so I would leave my work place” “Ohh that happened to me so I could learn confidence”
Hopefully I’m making sense.
After glancing past this quote I realized I had it wrong.. for pretty much ever. Everything does happen for a reason, still faithfully believe that, however that reason might not always be – to benefit ME.
Maybe my light was shinning & it was needed to shine somewhere else. Maybe I needed to be a complete fail so someone else could realize their life doesn’t suck as bad. HA!
But hello?! DUH!
After I started thinking this way, nearly every day for the past 6 months or so, it’s almost as if the pressure has been taken off of ME. Because it’s not all about me. It’s about all of us.
I know, I’m deep.
You can imagine, I’ve had months of thinking about this and it’s all coming out. But the whole thought changed a lot of my mindset and has influenced my decisions & reactions the past couple months, so I thought it was worth sharing.
Because it’s a bit of a relief.
Thoughts?
Xx