Compass

One of the most heart-wrenching things about the journey through this life is having people whom you care so much about leave the path you were on at one time together. The unexpected can be shocking, traumatizing.
Imagine opening your life and your heart up to someone, all the possibilities; knowing that you are just getting started on your walk together - choosing a new path, hand in hand; trusting that if you fall, they will pick you up - or if you make a wrong turn they still end up next to you, and hoping they know you would do the same for them.
Out of the blue, the person you believed in, the friendship you cherished, all of the laughter, the comforting voice and safety of their arms vanishes into thin air.
How do you take another step when you are so numb? And what direction do you turn at that point?

Some will say that everything happens for a reason...implying there is some higher power at work for the sadness that happens in our lives. I don't believe that. It's a cop out, a way to shift the blame to something beyond ourselves. Things happen because we make choices and those choices have a ripple effect on others that we fail to consider because we are so wrapped up in our selves.
God wants us to be happy and live lives of love, joy, and abundance. His expectation of us is to be kind and loving to others. It really is so easy. That's how it should be.
Yet, we make it an uphill battle. When He gifts another's heart to us, it's usually because we asked for it. But then we flee from the gift. (The gift feels like dirt, being rejected like that.)
We run. We hide. Usually, we end up going down the wrong trail because we keep relying on an old map, over and over again...it keeps taking us to the same spot.

It's only when we are brave enough to come out of our hiding places and open our eyes - and hearts, that we truly understand that God is the compass, pointing us in the direction He thinks would bring us the most peace and love in our lives.