How God Restored the Train Wreck of Our Lives

Sometimes the curveballs life throws at us are almost completely our own doing. Sure, there might be some bad circumstances or nuances of injustice in our stories that predisposes us to a cursed life. But there is no reason why we should accept the hand dealt us and, hence, make excuses why our lives are ruined.

If our lives have turned out as a train wreck it is not life’s fault (or God’s). We can still get in there with a recovery team and salvage it. We can transform the wreck into something new; something different; something genuinely purposeful.

So there are no excuses. Many of us have had rock bottoms, which a friend described to me recently as being as close to death as you can be without actually dying.

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I’ve been guilty of enabling bad behaviour by rescuing people from situations of their own making. The father of the Prodigal Son did no such thing, but was ready to receive him in unconditional love when the Prodigal Son was ready (desperate enough to come back in humility). The father did not run after his son. He allowed his son the dignity to undignify himself – something many of us have needed no help with.

The troubled person needs to be allowed the indignity of the fullness of their God-appointed and God-anointed rock bottom. It sounds too tough but it’s the only way many of us were able to be helped. But what must underpin it is love. We never give up on them, but we must wait patiently for the miracle of the receipt of God’s grace in their lives.

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From relinquishing our weakness to resolving afresh in strength, in that gap, is God Himself. From one point of dire hopelessness to that very God-defining victory, against the odds, there is Jesus.

We need to take personal responsibility for the circumstances we find ourselves in; the majority of the reason we are where we are is our decision-making. Only when we take responsibility for where we are at can we resolve the right motive and action to make something of ourselves. Excuses only hold us back, no matter how true they are.

God restored the train wreck we made of our lives when we decided to own up to our responsibilities, day after day, month after month.

Excuses take us far from God, but when we acknowledge the truth God feels very near.

God has a massively purposeful present and future for everyone who grasps full responsibility for their own life.

© 2014 S. J. Wickham.