I'm not sure that this counts as a cliche, but I hear it so often that it counts in MY book, and I guess that's what matters here, right? Anyway, I HATE it when people say, "It just wasn't meant to be." What a cop-out. That's a fatalistic attitude, and it just drives me insane. There's very little in my life that I've ever really wanted and not gotten. If there's something I want, I just put my head down and work on it until I get whatever it is I think I have to have, whether those are physical, tangible things or more intangible ways of thinking and knowing. Sometimes it takes a lot of work to make something happen, and believing that when something doesn't happen the way you want it to means "it just wasn't meant to be" is giving up.
Let's say that I go shopping for a certain item and don't find it at the first store I go to. Does that mean "it wasn't meant to be" and I should not have that item? No, it just means it's not at that store, and I need to go somewhere else for it if I really want it. If one of my students doesn't understand something I'm teaching the first time we go over it, does that mean "it wasn't meant to be" for that student to get that concept? What about the 5th time or the 17th time or the 101st time I explain it? At some point, the kid's gonna get it and if I gave up after one or two or 12 times because I believed "it wasn't meant to be," I sold that kid short.
We take our fate into our own hands. We make decisions, and we make things happen. That doesn't negate my belief in God to guide my choices or to give me the strength I need to make things happen. I definitely believe that God plays a role in what happens; I just don't believe He makes things easy for us all the time. Sometimes, oftentimes, we have to work for what we want and if we give up because "it wasn't meant to be," we are shortchanging ourselves. If something doesn't happen for you, try harder. Don't give up. Don't make excuses. Don't pretend you have no control. Make it happen.
