You don't always have it all together

Sometimes people surprise me. I think I've got them pegged, and then they pull a fast one. A friend accepts me when I'm at my very worst. My mom supports my sudden crazy interest in my high school boyfriend. My dad thinks I'm overreacting to something I feel quite calm about.

The thing is, people do this all the time. One minute, we think they don't care, and the next minute, they care a whole lot. I guess it's because we're human; we're unpredictable. We are capable of making different decisions. We are capable of growing and changing and becoming more healthy than we were five years ago.

This helps me to believe that God is good and loves us very much. When left to our own devices, we screw up, time and again. We run into the same rock over and over, instead of learning from past mistakes. As complex as our brains are, we can behave quite stupidly. This is where something mystical comes in. God comes into our humanness, says it's okay (i.e. the humanness), and shows us a better way. We aren't chastised or bullied. We are gently shepherded to a better place, a better path, and eventually, hopefully, a better life.

So when a relationship looks broken and unmendable, remember that human power is limited, but God is not. Don't throw away what was once a good thing (or once a bad thing for that matter) just because things don't look good in this particular moment. Recognize that change is possible, that people are surprising and not always jerks, and that sometimes you, even in your finite, limited wisdom, can be wrong.