Some time ago, I was ruminating about a series of painful experiences. These were all incredibly negative experiences with people associated with what I call the institutional church.  

           “Why did this happen to me?” I thought. I don’t know anyone else who had anything like these experiences.  They left me with a decidedly bad taste and formed the motivation for what was to become a cause that I champion.

           I was feeling perplexed and sorry for myself.

           And then I had moment of inspiration. 

           These things happened to me because the Lord wanted them to!

           He orchestrated these events and put me in the center of them, because he wanted me to have the experience and learn the lessons that He wanted me to learn.

           I went from feeling sorry for myself to feeling special.  

           A couple of weeks ago, I was interviewing a Christian businessperson for my Christian Business Insights podcasting show. As he was describing his life and how he happened to get where he was, he said, “The Lord curated the events in my life to bring me where I am.”

           He had a unique body of knowledge and had formed a business based on the skills and knowledge gained through his life experiences.

           I knew exactly what he was saying.  The Lord did the same in my life. He curated the experiences, the relationships, the events in my life to produce what he wanted in me.  I’ve often said that I am exactly where I should be, doing exactly what I should do, because my life experiences, relationships, successes and failures have shaped me to be perfect for this situation and the work that I do.

           It occurred to me that He works with all of us in the same way.

           I now have a renewed understanding of the verse:

           For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which     God prepared in advance for us to do.  Ephesians: 2:10

           Notice the sequence.  The good works were prepared first, and then we were molded, shaped and honed to become perfect to accomplish a task that is important to God.

           We were, each of us, created at our conception, and then further shaped and refined by our lives. His workmanship didn’t end at our conception. That was only the beginning. God instilled – at our conception – a unique set of attributes in our brain’s hardwiring that makes us genetically unique.  But his “workmanship” had just begun. He curates our lives to continue to shape us and prepare us for the good works for which he created us.

           While many of my life experiences were difficult and painful, now, in retrospect, I see how they were curated to produce a body of knowledge, a set of skills, a mindset, and even a set of relationships that is perfect for what I do.

           What have I learned?  Even in the most difficult and painful of circumstances, God has us in his hands, crafting us through his workmanship to be exactly perfect for the works he wants us to do. That’s exciting.

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