How many times have you had what seemed like an incredible set-back happen to you? What did you feel in that moment? Despair? Anger? Frustration? Hopelessness? What if I told you that those ‘set backs’ were not random, not just some luck of the draw? What if they were orchestrated for a specific purpose that you cannot recognize at that moment?
Let me give you an example. You are at the office, working diligently on some project that feels very important and to which you devote your full attention, as usual. And then suddenly, for no apparent reason, disaster strikes. Perhaps a lengthy email you were about to send vanishes or the file you are working on becomes corrupt and you have no backup. Maybe it’s worse than that; maybe errors you made on a project cost you something – a promotion or even your job.
Would it help you to know that, even though it may feel like life is out of control, there is nothing random about it? There is a bigger picture here being played out for your highest good even when you don’t realize it. You have heard the expression about looking for the silver lining, trying to find something good in what is seemingly ‘bad’. What if the silver lining were not just a way to see the situation as favourable – what if it were the whole point of the occurrence, and the seeming ‘tragedy’ of the situation really isn’t that?
These sorts of ‘re-directs’ (as I like to call them) from Spirit happen every day to individuals who call it bad luck. But an ‘unfortunate event’ is often what it takes to push us in a direction we would never otherwise have taken but are meant to. This new direction is there to lead you to brilliant opportunities, your true potential and the fulfilment you desire. Most times we cannot see this at the time; we only know, for example, that we are suddenly out of a job and have a mortgage to pay. It is in hindsight that we see that losing that job was timed perfectly for a new opportunity that presents itself, or to push us to take a chance and start that business we have dreamed of.
I am sure these re-directs have happened more times than I realize. But certainly it happened to me twenty-odd years ago when being passed up for a key promotion was the push I needed to leave that career and take a direction I might otherwise not have considered. Was that a push from Spirit? Absolutely. Did it prove to be exactly the right course of action for me? Definitely. But it sure didn’t feel wonderful at the time.
So the next time something ‘bad’ happens I encourage you, firstly, not to be hasty in applying that label, and then to dig deeper for what larger canvass is being painted by the events in your life. What new adventure or opportunity for growth is awaiting you?
Sandra Daniels 