Life was not going as planned.
I graduated with my master’s degree in May last year, and I had planned on getting a full-time job as soon as I was finished. As I neared my final day of classes, I began looking for jobs and submitting applications, but nothing was panning out. After graduation, weeks and months passed by. Holidays and special events came and went, and I still did not have a job. I became depressed and confused as to why I couldn’t find a good job. Thankfully, after ten very long months of waiting and hoping, I finally started in a full-time job, and as I look back, I can see that God moved me out of my old position and into my new one at just the perfect time.
However, not every situation in my life has turned out quite like this. There have many times where I wished and hoped and prayed for something to happen for weeks, months, years. I was absolutely convinced that everything would work out the way I had planned and dreamed. But it never did. My prayers appeared unanswered. My dreams were unfulfilled. And I was left in a perpetual state of longing, wondering what in the world God was doing in my life.
Over the years, I’ve had to learn embrace the life I’ve been given, which is exactly what Elizabeth Woodson’s new book is all about.
It can sometimes be hard for us to imagine, but life doesn’t revolve around us, our dreams, and our desires. We are a part of a much bigger, much grander story—the story of God. We tend to place our hope in temporal things and create idols out of things—like education, careers, marriage, and motherhood—that were never meant to be worshipped. When our expectations for these areas of our lives go unmet, we often fall into dissatisfaction, depression, and emotional avoidance. But, as Elizabeth argues in Embrace Your Life, we need to remember that the world revolves around God, not us, and we ought to embrace the journey that He has set us upon.
Now, this does not mean that we should act like everything is just fine and dandy when we’re disappointed with our circumstances—when the doctors deliver some terrible news, when we’ve been passed up for that job promotion again, when we can’t seem to find Mr. Right. The Bible demonstrates that lament is good, healthy even. When the life we have is not the life we hoped for, we can grieve what we do not have, place our hope in God, and pray with open hands, knowing that it is only God who can heal and fulfill us.
“God has not abandoned you. He is present with you in your pain and is able to bring you the healing that your soul desires…the hope and fulfillment we desperately desire is only found in Jesus.”[1]
How can we practically trust God and practice contentment despite what may be happening (or not happening) in our lives? Elizabeth writes that we must remember who our God is and who He has declared us to be. Throughout His Word, we can see that God is eternal, sovereign, and faithful. There has never been a time when God did not exist and was not in charge of every single little thing in the universe. His rule over creation has always been good, righteous, and just, and He has been faithful to always keep His promises. He provides for His people when they’re in need, protects them when they’re in danger, and is present with them even in the darkest of valleys.
God has created us in the imago Dei, in His image, after His likeness. He loved us so much that He sent His Son to die in our place for our sins. He has adopted us into His family as sons and daughters. And He has given each of us a divine purpose: to glorify God in all things. When we remember who our good God is and remember the good news of the gospel, we can truly have faith, live courageously, and embrace joy, even if our longings are never met this side of heaven.
“The gospel reminds us that God has not forgotten us and knows what’s best for our lives. If he has ensured our eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, then he can be trusted to guide us through our temporary season of longing.”[2]
I loved Elizabeth’s book, Embrace Your Life, and I actually enjoyed reading it far more than I anticipated. Throughout the book, Elizabeth focuses on the life of Joshua as he led Israel out of the wilderness and into the promised land and reveals how Joshua is an example of how to find joy when life doesn’t go as planned. She encourages her readers to embrace help, hope, loss, and faith and explains how they can practically and biblically do this at the end of each chapter.
Maybe your life isn’t going exactly as planned. You’re failing your classes, or you’re changing your major once again. You can’t get a job at your dream workplace, or you feel stuck in a career that makes you feel miserable. You never expected to be single this long, or you never expected that marriage would be this hard. You’re unable to start a family, or you’ve become estranged from the family you once held so dear. You’ve received an unexpected diagnosis, or you’re looking at your life and wondering if things will ever change for the better. You feel lost. You feel alone. You feel broken.
Take heart, and don’t lose hope. God is still God, and He still has a good plan for your life, even if you can’t see it.
“Because even if our situation never changes, the God we serve is still good, and the life he has given us is still worth living because it’s a beautiful life that we get to live with him.”[3]
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[1] Elizabeth Woodson, Embrace Your Life: How to Find Joy When the Life You Have is Not the Life You Hoped For (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2022), 11, 84.
[2] Ibid., 42.
[3] Ibid., 192.
