By Rev. Pat Hansen

Few are the people who can say they have never fallen apart for any reason. And there are millions of them.

Usual reactions are, “What’s happening to me?”
“Why is this happening to me?”
And “How can I fix this.”

Emotions range from initial shock and disbelief to abject fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of losing control.

The more control you try to apply, the worse things get until surrender is the only option.

“God, how could you do this to me?”
Turns into “God I give up. Help me. I don’t know what to do.”

Luckily, God has a plan for each one of us. Who has the better perspective, you or God?

Ron Roth, the co-founder of Celebrating Life Ministries is credited with saying, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

When we listen to our Divine within, and let Her take charge, miracles begin to happen.

I do understand falling apart. I’ve been laid off, or RIFed (reduced in force) more times than most people. Companies I worked for would merge with another, get bought out, go under new management or similar situations. I worked as an instructional designer/trainer, which seemed to be a favorite target for layoffs, once staff were trained and performance numbers were met. Each time the universe (God) colluded to bring me to a better job situation.

The last time I was out of work for 18 months. My benefits had run out. I was looking at raiding my IRA when a position came up in the organization that laid me off a year and a half before. It was in a very different department, one that I had worked with but not for in the past. Long story short, I got the job. Due to generous company policies, my seniority was reinstated which included vacation days and health benefits which extended into retirement.

During those 18 months I attended a weekly Job Seekers group – another benefit. The leader urged me to just take a job, any job after a year had passed. I kept telling the group that the right job would present itself. In my head I would add, “In divine right timing.”

They thought I was nuts. I knew I was listening to my guidance. The job showed up.

If you have read this far, you deserve some steps to help you to come back together again after falling apart.

1. Clear your mind. If you can meditate that’s a great tool. If you don’t think you could meditate there are wonderful one-minute meditations online, including YouTube videos. They can help you begin.

2. Tune in to your higher self/your divine/the voice of God.
In a recent Richard Rohr meditation, Listening to the Voice of God (find it here) (The whole post is well worth reading), he explained how to discriminate between our egoic voice and the voice of the Divine.
    “We must receive all words of God tenderly and subtly, so that we can speak them to others with tenderness and subtlety. I would even say that anything said with too much bravado, overassurance, or with any need to control or impress another, is never the voice of God within us. If any thought feels too harsh, shaming, or diminishing of ourselves or others, it is not likely the voice of God. Trust me on that. That is simply our egoic voice. Why do humans so often presume the exact opposite—that shaming voices are always from God, and grace voices are always the imagination?”
If something comes toward us with grace and can pass through us and toward others with grace, we can trust it as the voice of God.