In a recent blog I was lamenting that remembering my past made me a little blue, because I had regrets and things have happened to me that were less than wonderful. But I have been reminded that I am who I am because of my history.
All week I have been listening to the CD Stay by Jeremy Camp in my car. One of the songs on that CD is called Walk by Faith, but all week I really haven’t tuned into that song even though it is the one I really needed to hear. Then last night I was listening to my iPod while I was making dinner, and had it on shuffle of my Christian Music playlist. This is something I haven’t done for awhile – I’ve been listening to the Oldies playlist or the Sad Heartache Songs playlist instead. I started out last night listening to the Grunge playlist, but it wasn’t helping my mood at all (now that’s a big surprise).
It just so happened that the third song to play on the Christian music playlist while I was chopping veggies for homemade chicken noodle soup was Walk by Faith. The chorus goes like this:
Well I will walk by faith
Even when I cannot see
Well because this broken road
Prepares Your will for me
As I heard those words, I realized that the broken road I have traveled (and don’t we all travel a broken road of some kind?) has made me who I am. It has taught me love, compassion, empathy, and, most importantly, faith. If my life had been perfect and easy, with no pain and heartache, first of all I wouldn’t be human. But secondly, I would be a different, perhaps shallower person. I might not even be happy.
So I have decided not to lament or regret my past, but to see it for what it is: the broken road that has prepared me to be the person God wants me to be to those around me. Because ultimately, those around me have traveled a broken road too. And sometimes it is a very similar broken road so that we can relate to each other’s journey. Maybe, as I walk that road by faith, I can help others to walk by faith, too.
Besides, without the lessons learned on my broken road I would have nothing but fluff to write and this blog would have no purpose.