Too often we write people off in life hoping that we’ll never again have to face the hurt, confusion, burden, envy, or angst we think the person brings. It’s just easier not to be bothered, right?  Who needs the drama?  So, we stop taking their calls. We refrain from extending invitations to share wine (maybe cognac if you’re into that…but, you get the point) and the latest farm to table cuisine. We hide or throw away anything that will give even an inkling of a reminder of our association with the person. In some instances, we even make our best attempt to erase them from our memory. Because somehow creating this element of non-existence begins to fill all the holes the person has so carefully cut out of our spirit and heart.  I mean at least that’s what we’ve accepted as truth.

What we soon find out is that those same things we try to forget in one person will show up in another. Why? Because it’s never about the person.  No encounter in life is coincidental. God connects us with people in life to teach us more about who we are. So, while we’re hoping the world isn’t so small after all and we’ll never see this person again, we should really be more focused on why we crossed paths in the first place.  I believe God is one of the nice teachers…He’ll let you keep taking the test until you actually get a better grade (thankfully, he imparted this same quality in my high school Chemistry teacher).  In other words, you may not be revisited by the initial person who you thought you gave a one way ticket out of your life, but he’ll raise the same issues and characteristics in another person that once bothered you.  While it’s imperative that we learn to let go of people that may be hindering spiritual and life progression, we should never dismiss their value.  If we refuse to acknowledge the unpleasantries of our relationships, then we forfeit God’s ability to help us move to a place of forgiveness, peace, and maybe even restoration.  You honestly never know what the future holds and who you may need in life.  Don’t burn what can be fixed.  Build until it can’t be broken.

I really consider it a blessing that God didn’t give me some of the things I thought I wanted.  How many times have you prayed and pleaded for something to happen, and well, it just never did.  Of course in that moment you were probably frustrated with yourself (and yes, God too…don’t worry He can take it) because it seemed as though no matter how hard you tried, things never worked out the way you wanted them to.  You probably even asked yourself how God could be so quiet.  Well, what if your prayer didn’t align with God’s intent?  What if your dream just wasn’t big enough?  What if God was simply waiting for you to ask for more?  Would you really want God to shrink His plan to meet your lackluster expectations?

Allow me to be the first to tell you that there will be periods in life where you simply have to be okay with silence.  You will have to be okay with rejection.  You will just have to be okay with what is.  It is during these moments where you learn the value of stillness.  Sometimes God has to use silence to enlarge your thoughts about His power.  Silence makes us think.  Silence makes us wonder.  Silence ignites our passion.  Silence inspires our creativity.  But, more than anything, silence draws us closer to our Creator.  We begin to look for Him.  We begin to ask for Him.  We begin to meditate on Him.  We begin to learn who we really are in Him.

It is only through the stillness of life where we can dream deeper, reach higher, love harder, grow stronger, and move further in our story.