This is what is true in regard to your own personal destiny: You have a gift that only you can give. You have a song that only you can sing. You have a message that only you can impart.  God has a plan for each one of us. He put eternity in our hearts before we were formed in our mother’s womb. God has a plan and a future for you and one for me. God’s design and purpose for us is our destiny and it is our number one reason for living. No two destinies are the same.

The mystery of “knowing” is revealed when we live our life with purpose.  Awareness comes with knowing. We don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t know true freedom until we have been set free. We don’t know real pain until we have experienced pain. We don’t know a broken heart until our heart has broken. We don’t know the pain of loss until we lose something precious. We don’t know how to comfort until we have sorrowed. Life is that way.

The opposite is true as well. We have a greater capacity to know the fullness of joy after we have experienced the devastating effects of pain. The contrast makes us aware of this complexity. We more fully know and appreciate peace when we have experienced the tragedy of war. We more fully know wealth because we have known poverty. We more fully appreciate good health after we have lost our health. We more fully know what it is to be secure after we have known disruptive insecurity. We more fully know trust when we have overcome doubt. We more fully know ourselves after we have acknowledged our weaknesses.

My cousin, Jer, and I talked about this mystery a few years ago. He said that we can’t really understand a valley unless there is a mountain. It is like the person who has seen snow in pictures but snow makes no sense until they physically experience snow. I remember he and I talked about the sorrows in life and how they contribute to our knowing more completely the beautiful side, the ‘sunshine after the rain’ effect, the ‘joy comes in the morning’ reality.

Life is full of living contrasts. They add to the complexity of life making it interesting, full of ideas and items to explore. Even our human traits, personalities and talents show this amazing assortment of contrasts. They frequently overlap. We describe them using man-made categories. We think, itemize, and compare these realities to help us make sense of them in concrete ways.

Here are a few contrasts, many of them personalities. There is the introvert versus the extrovert; practical vs. impulsive; right brain vs. left brain; athlete vs. nerd; feminine vs. tomboy; quiet vs. loud; expressive vs. flat affect; emotional vs. phlegmatic; monotone vs. melodic; critical vs. affirming; positive vs. negative; mean vs. kind; motivated vs. lazy; miserly vs. charitable; humble vs. proud; insignificant vs. magnificent; other-centered vs. self-centered; ugly vs. beautiful; and spiritual vs. profane.

I could add many more contrasts to the list. The point is, there are many types of people in this world. We are the sum of our many parts: Our heritage plus personality plus abilities plus experiences plus education plus religion . . . . equals (determine), the individual. . . .the whole person. But that, too, is incomplete. Free will plus life’s experiences plus the spiritual dimension weave together to determine a person’s destiny.

The truth is, we all have a destiny. The confounding challenge is to find out what is your own, unique-to-you, destiny. I once was struggling with a problem in my life. It was an area of insecurity for me and involved a distracting friendship. A different friend said a statement to me about my personal struggle that resounded loud and clear. “Norma, that is not your destiny,” he went on to say, “Which is more important to you? Your social life or your spiritual life?” What could I say? It was the right question. He nailed it by asking me a destiny question. His thoughtful comment got me back on track pursuing my destiny according to God’s way.

My friend was wise in speech. He used his spiritual wisdom to draw attention to what is always “best” in a given situation. My perception of the situation was wrongly focused and influenced by self-stuff. But it could not be my destiny. I came to see it more clearly once I was separated from the situation. It was one of those things where I was allowing my social life to trump my spiritual life, which is why my friend could safely say, that as a Christian it could not be my destiny.

Again, this is what is true regarding a person’s destiny: You have a gift only you can give. You have a song only you can sing. You have a message only you can impart. Before we were formed in our mother’s womb, God had a plan for each one of us. He put eternity in our hearts. God has a plan and a future for you and one for me. It is our destiny and our number one purpose for living.

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