LovebirdsFlying
My husband drew this cartoon of me.
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- Aug 13, 2007
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I already know my thinking is wrong; there is no need to tell me that much. I'd like to know, please, exactly where the errors are and how to correct them with Scripture.
I have it in my head that people's lives are written out beforehand, sort of like a book. Events and outcomes are already decided. This is going to happen on page 16, and that will happen on page 300. There is nothing the character in the book can do to change it. In fact, it really doesn't matter what the character wants. If she wants with all her heart to be a ballerina, but the author has written a story about a character who never gets to be a ballerina, then something will always happen to stop her from becoming a ballerina, because that's the plot.
And, I further have it in my head that my character will never be successful in a career. It's not written in my life story for me to succeed. I'm a Charlie Brown character; he was never supposed to kick that football, no matter how many times he tried. The story of my life appears to be to *almost* succeed, but something beyond my control always interferes.
I'd grown up in poverty, married into domestic violence, escaped it, survived a car accident making my former profession (nursing assistant, which is very physically strenuous) impossible to pursue, was on disability and in subsidized housing for many years, and then married a man who could support me and get me the medical care I needed. I finally overcame disability enough to be able to get a job at all... and now this. I had *just* been promoted at work. I was *almost on the brink* of succeeding. Then they shut the office down, and my husband has gotten word he's going to be laid off too. Now it's right back to wondering how we're going to survive, just like the circumstances I grew up in. I didn't escape that life after all. I only thought I had.
I've just read where this virus crisis could last up to 18 months. That's an awful long time for both me *and* my husband to be laid off. And by the time it's over, with my paltry work history, will I be too old to get another job?
Yes, I realize the virus didn't come into existence merely for the purpose of forcing me and/or my husband out of work. And I realize we're far from the only ones in this boat. But I can't shake the notion that it's written somewhere, I'm not allowed to succeed. If I start to, then something is going to happen to knock me back down to the bottom of the heap.... where I belong, because that's the way the author wrote it.
Will someone please show me Scripturally that 1.) our lives are not written down beforehand, to be completely unchangeable by us, and 2.) God didn't pre-ordain me to be a loser no matter how hard I try?
Thank you.
I have it in my head that people's lives are written out beforehand, sort of like a book. Events and outcomes are already decided. This is going to happen on page 16, and that will happen on page 300. There is nothing the character in the book can do to change it. In fact, it really doesn't matter what the character wants. If she wants with all her heart to be a ballerina, but the author has written a story about a character who never gets to be a ballerina, then something will always happen to stop her from becoming a ballerina, because that's the plot.
And, I further have it in my head that my character will never be successful in a career. It's not written in my life story for me to succeed. I'm a Charlie Brown character; he was never supposed to kick that football, no matter how many times he tried. The story of my life appears to be to *almost* succeed, but something beyond my control always interferes.
I'd grown up in poverty, married into domestic violence, escaped it, survived a car accident making my former profession (nursing assistant, which is very physically strenuous) impossible to pursue, was on disability and in subsidized housing for many years, and then married a man who could support me and get me the medical care I needed. I finally overcame disability enough to be able to get a job at all... and now this. I had *just* been promoted at work. I was *almost on the brink* of succeeding. Then they shut the office down, and my husband has gotten word he's going to be laid off too. Now it's right back to wondering how we're going to survive, just like the circumstances I grew up in. I didn't escape that life after all. I only thought I had.
I've just read where this virus crisis could last up to 18 months. That's an awful long time for both me *and* my husband to be laid off. And by the time it's over, with my paltry work history, will I be too old to get another job?
Yes, I realize the virus didn't come into existence merely for the purpose of forcing me and/or my husband out of work. And I realize we're far from the only ones in this boat. But I can't shake the notion that it's written somewhere, I'm not allowed to succeed. If I start to, then something is going to happen to knock me back down to the bottom of the heap.... where I belong, because that's the way the author wrote it.
Will someone please show me Scripturally that 1.) our lives are not written down beforehand, to be completely unchangeable by us, and 2.) God didn't pre-ordain me to be a loser no matter how hard I try?
Thank you.