"Your destiny, God's purpose and plan for your life is not wrapped up in the people in your life who abandon you and walk away from you and distance themselves from you and give up on you. God's plan is not wrapped up in any one person or any groups of people who will leave you. Does God use people in our lives? Absolutely. Does God work through other people in our lives? 100%. Does God want you to have people in your lives? Without a doubt. But what God has in store for you is never wrapped up or contingent upon what somebody else will do who will leave you. If someone wants to walk away from you, bid them farewell. Wish them well and you keep on pressing on!"
I struggle with rejection from people. I hurt when people leave me, distance themselves from me, abandon me. Sometimes I know the reason...perhaps the relationship became unhealthy or toxic for one or both people involved, perhaps because they move and go on to their next stage in life, perhaps because they die. Sometimes I don't know the reason they leave. Maybe it's something I did wrong, said wrong....did I offend them? Hurt them? Sometimes I just don't know. I often sit and analyze and over-analyze the situation in my head trying to figure out what went wrong. Why did this person have to leave me again? Why do people always leave? That makes me think of the TV show One Tree Hill and Peyton Sawyer who drew this picture.
She had a number of people in her life that kept on leaving her. Her mom died. Her father was always away for his job. Boyfriends that she got close to would always break her heart and leave. And so is life. Things happen, right? I understand that things just happen, but I wish I wasn't so deeply affected by it when they do leave. I recently have had a number of people in my life leave. My brother and his wife moved away so they aren't just up the road from me. I had an ex-boyfriend cut off communication with me. I lost one of my closest best friends. And many people from my Community Group have left. It's ok. These things happen. But with each person that leaves, I feel like a part of me goes with them and a small void is left in my heart. I invest deeply in each person and relationship I enter into. I love people and feel called to serve them and love them as Christ would have me. So, when they leave, it hurts. But I have learned, that sometimes....it is for the best. That lesson has taken me years and years to learn, and I still sometimes find myself fighting against it and not fully accepting it. But sometimes you just have to let go. As Pastor Stu said, sometimes you just have to "wish them well and keep pressing on!" When I think back to all the people who have left over the last 6 months for whatever reason, I still love each one of them! Seriously. Perhaps at first I had some bitter and anger, and I of course was hurt, but God has helped me sort through those feelings, to purify them, so that love comes out in the end. I might have felt like I was wronged by them, but I am not here to judge or bring justice upon them. That is for God to handle. I am simply here to love with all that I have, to serve sacrificially, and to let go when the Lord asks me to let go.
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