When What’s Always Worked Works No More

We are to be forgiven for thinking we know all about life, and the way to run our lives. It works fine—or seems to—until it works no more. Then we arrive headlong through the laundry chute of rejection. When life works no more we venture for another solution or we give up. There is no sense in giving up. But, again, we are forgiven for doing so.

When we get to that place where life works no more, as it is, we do go searching. Sometimes we go searching without even recognising it. Sometimes we find what we are looking for serendipitously. And sometimes we just don’t ever find what we are looking for.

There are so many situations of life this applies to.

We have faith in our way until our way works no more. When God reveals the folly of that way, or that way is just ineffective because times have changed, we must improvise, adapt, and overcome.

When what’s always worked works no more we stand on a precipice. It is an important juncture of life. Not many people will just sit there. Most people prefer to stand, contemplate, and then act. We are blessed to be active moderators of our own lives.

Old Endings and New Beginnings

Just about every end is no new end. Many people have gone before us and have made similar mistakes. Not that we thought of what we were doing as a mistake; not until now. Now we are prepared to turn back to a more studious way.

We can have no new beginning unless there is an ending. There is no fresh start unless we bid farewell to the old way.

When what’s always worked works no more, we begin to see what seemed to work, but never did really. We just had a less mature outlook; we settled for second or third best.

The beauty of life is that there is no shortage of second chances to start afresh. Indeed, every day, hour, and every minute carries with it possibility pregnant for change.

We can feel we are wasting our lives and still God affords us the opportunity, today, and this very moment, to move on. It is always our choice.

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The grace of God is good in this: we never stop learning and we never stop growing, because life continually challenges us. Grace is sufficient for us. It is strength for our weakness in helping us from one not-so-stable platform in life to another one more secure.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.