rebecca's insite

We tend to measure the success of our lives by how closely reality matches our blueprint. When a plan executes flawlessly, we celebrate. When a door slams shut—when a job doesn’t materialize, a project falls through, or a financial path dries up—our immediate instinct is to think of it as bad luck, a setback, or a failure.

As I navigate the second half of this year, I am looking back at the profound shifts of the past twelve months with a completely different perspective. I have not only stopped viewing recently closed doors as a loss, but I am also starting to recognize them for what they truly are: real blessings.

To be completely honest, this was incredibly difficult to believe a few months ago. Although I had said the right words to myself and to others, it hadn’t quite sunk in. I just believed it even though I couldn’t see the bigger picture yet. I was still actively grieving the outcome of multiple job losses within two months. The sting was real, and I felt bruised. But if those jobs had worked out exactly the way I wanted, I now see how I would have settled for far less than what my soul actually needs.

Last August, I attended a special ceremony where we were challenged to ask for something BIG AND BOLD. And so, I did. I wrote three specific requests down on a postcard, intentionally putting them in a specific order because I thought that sequence was important. I set this card on a stand near my nightstand, looking at it occasionally over the year to remind myself of what I was reaching for.

This past month, I actually looked at that card and realized that two out of those three “impossible” requests have already come to fruition.

They didn’t arrive in the order I expected, but they are here. And ironically, their arrival is a direct result of the doors that slammed shut in January and March of this year. If those doors hadn’t closed, I would be in a much more precarious situation today.

I know now that not every closed door is a punishment, a setback, or a failure. My recently closed doors were actually the physical answers to the bold prayers I whispered last August.

We tend to think of blessings only as things that arrive: a new contract, an influx of income, a massive breakthrough. But true growth requires us to expand our definition of abundance. Sometimes, the blessing is not in what arrived—it is in what left, what was discharged, or what didn’t stay.

Sometimes, the prayers we whisper are answered not by addition, but by radical removal.

Time is the great translator of our hardships. I can see now that I had to go through those job losses earlier this year to prepare me for this season of removal. Enough distance has passed that I can look back at the wreckage of my old plans and begin to map a completely different landscape. I haven’t lost ground at all:

• That painful delay? It gave me wisdom.
• Those frustrating “no’s”? They gave me standards.
• That sudden loss? It gave me clarity.

I am walking away with an entirely new set of boundaries and a much sharper vision for my life. Soon, I will be ready for expansion.

So, if you are currently navigating a transition that feels heavy, or sitting with the discomfort of a plan that shattered right in front of you, take a deep breath.

Trust the detour.

Trust the removal.

Trust that you are being rescued from a space you’ve already outgrown.