What do you think about soulmates?

*Preface: The Lord gave me these words on a walk a few weeks ago that I wrote most of in the Notes app and transferred and edited it to what you're reading today.

“Do you believe in soulmates?” my friend asked me as we were drifting off to sleep in her childhood bedroom in the dark. She had recently just gotten engaged, and I was secretly struggling with my own thoughts and confusion about marriage based on deep hurt I've witnessed and experienced from someone who was supposed to love and care about another.

I told her from across the room with tears quietly forming in my eyes, “I think the term soulmates doesn’t necessarily come from a faith-based perspective, so I’m not sure. But I do know that God knows who He has chosen for you, if anyone, and He is completely sovereign over it.”

That was years ago, but as I'm on my daily walk with God, deep in thought, that moment returned to my mind.

If you answer that question “no, I don't believe in soulmates” well, the hopeless romantics don’t like that answer, and personally I believe that messes a bit with God’s sovereignty. But if you say “yes” the obvious next question is “but what about people who get divorced or remarried?”

Over the years, in my own faith journey, I come to understand that God is so much bigger than who we often make Him to be. I’ve started to realize that while yes, God is a personal God who knows the number of hairs on my head and deeply cares about my deepest needs and desires, He also has a much bigger plan and objective than my own tiny personal happiness (or what I think I want).

If you’ve been married and divorced, I still believe God didn’t make a mistake. Yeesh, that’s hard to understand. But I do believe He didn’t punish you, or “let you pick the wrong one;” I think He’s bigger than that.

The Bible says that “for from him and through him and to him are all things… to him be the honor and glory” (Romans 11:36). Everything on earth (absolutely everything) is made and composed to ultimately glorify the LORD— who made all things allowed all things to be, and holds all things together.

Our human finite understanding sees things that hurt and seem wrong and we think “well surely that isn’t glorifying the Lord” … but He’s not done. Isaiah 55:7-8 says “for His ways are not our ways nor are His thoughts our thoughts.”

I believe there are so many things that appear to not be glorifying the Lord, think of humankind and our sin. But if everything was glorifying Him the way we know we ultimately should be and will someday (in Heaven), well then we would already be in heaven.

God's Name is glorified through the beautiful process of sanctification-- using the pain we feel in the broken world to be refined into the image of Christ (what we were all made to eventually be like). This is speaking to those who freely choose to put their faith, hope and life in Jesus Christ.

God graciously grows and develops us over the span of our life to mold us into beings who look and act and think more like Jesus; and that takes time, and many many many (sometimes painful) life experiences. And a lot of times those painful experiences come from friendships and relationships too. 

We get disappointed, discouraged or heartbroken when something, especially something that came with someone else's promise, doesn’t work out. It’s heartbreaking and confusing, but what I’ve come to learn is that there is still peace.

And there is peace because for those who love Jesus Christ, and who have put their trust in Him and His will, He will use that broken relationship, that broken heart, for His glory— just try to trust Him, because it will make the slow reveal of His plan a lot more peaceful.

God loves you, and our great God, the Maker and God of the universe, who loves us so much, is also more interested in our salvation and eternal life than a (in comparison) minuscule piece of happiness that on earth feels like it is here today and (in comparison to an eternity in paradise) gone tomorrow.

Are you willing to let go of what you think is the perfect story for your life, and open your hands to allow God, who knows everything about you, your story, that situation and it's details, to do something He knows is even better for you?

Understanding a good and sovereign God in a broken world might be one of the hardest things to understand; but we have to. We have to have the faith of a child, and know that when we are hurting, God isn't looking down on us withholding something good, He is crying right there with us.

Remember that God loves you, and no matter what situation you face, Jesus came to give life to the fullest (John 10:10) to all, with no exceptions. And when it hurts, and believe me I know the feeling, remember that God is with you, He still has a good plan for you, and nothing compares to the promise of perfect eternity with Him. So keep your eyes on Jesus; He is our soul's ultimate soul mate and He is worth losing everything for.

Thank you for reading :)