Sunday, August 19, 2007 Lim: Meant to be By Melanie T. Lim Wide Awake
SOME things are meant to be.
I didn’t plan to be a teacher, writer, speaker or trainer. They simply happened. Chance or choice, they were meant to be.
I didn’t plan to be fiery, feminist or free-spirited. I didn’t plan to be forty, fat and forgetful. But hey, stranger things have happened. Like clockwork, everything fell into place at the right moment—like they were written in the stars. I cannot thwart God’s plans—whatever they are.
I plan for tomorrow, the weekend and even for next year, especially if it entails hopping from one continent to another. But beyond the “To Do” list for the day, the week, the month and travel plans for the next few years, the rest of my life is largely unplanned and shockingly spontaneous.
I once asked my best friend, Camille, “Would you be surprised if I told you I was going to set sail on the Caribbean on a sailboat?” Without batting an eyelash, she replied, “Not at all.” But I suppose the unspoken words were, “I’d be shocked if you didn’t attempt anything as foolhardy.”
Two decades have come and gone. And I haven’t been to the Caribbean. It’s not time. Not just yet.
I didn’t plan to go to China. And for two and a half months to turn into two and a half years. I didn’t plan to fall in love. Or to fall out of love. I didn’t plan to go. Or to come back. I didn’t plan for heartbreak and pain. But neither did I plan for strength and enlightenment.
Without a plan—you open the door to infinite possibilities. But beyond infinitum, life is just too short to waste away on a rigid master plan that can never go awry. Even ships and planes have to deviate from course once in a while.
Life isn’t any different.
We plan to be happy 24/7. But that’s never going to happen. We plan to live forever. But life is not meant to last that long. We plan to love and be loved back. But love doesn’t always happen as envisioned.
I planned for fame and fortune, love and loyalty, marriage and motherhood. But some things are not meant to be. And the sooner you accept it, the happier you will be.
I didn’t plan to be poor and persevering, single and stubborn, unwavering and undeterred. But someone up there must believe I must be me.
Most of me today, I didn’t plan for. But isn’t it funny that most of what I have today, I didn’t likewise ask for? Sometimes, it is simply incomprehensible—why God grants us the most unexpected blessings yet denies us our deepest desires.
I have found through the years that there can only be one explanation. God in all His wisdom grants us what we need but He does not see the need to grant us all that we want.
Some things are meant to be. And some things will never be.
