My own response (actually my wife's) to my post of the odd patterns

My wife reads my blog. She had a really good and positive way of looking at these odd patterns in my life.

My wife is wonderful. I asked her this morning what she thought of these patterns and she nailed it. Its actually a thought I have always had, but I have doubts about it when nothing seems to come of it and the pattern continues.

I even have more doubts when I dont sleep well. The lack of sleep makes for a really bad outlook on life and seems to make everything gloom and doom. Just like that old Hee Haw show for those of us that have been around that long and can remember it.

The song was called "Gloom Dispair and Agony on me"

This was how I felt yesterday. Today is a different story. I slept well last night and have a different outlook. So on with what these odd patterns are in my life.

God has always kept a close eye on my life. I dont really know why. But for whatever reason, he just has a special purpose for my life and does not let me wander too far. He does not allow me to have certain friends. He has always directed my life and just does not let me stray too far from his will. And in other cases, the thing I was supposed to do was only for a short season.

Such odd things for those that follow Christ are not without precedents.

• Jonah refused to go to Nineveh to preach. He took a boat ride to Tarshish, which was in the opposite direction from Nineveh. God sent a violent storm to almost sink the boat. The people of the boat determined the cause for this storm was Jonah. The crew threw him overboard. A whale swallowed him, took him to Nineveh and then spit him out.
  
• Then there is the story of Joseph. He was sold into slavery and went though a lot of pain in order to get placed where God needed him to be.
  

There are a lot of other stories in the Bible that show us that God directs people lives to get them where he needs them and to do what he needs them to do. Such is the case with my life and Im sure many others. Or most others. God is directing my life to get me where he wants me to be. Many times along the way, I have fought him. Like Jonah, I have not wanted to do what God has told me to do. I suspect that many of us fall into the same category.

Odd things seem to happen and we dont know why. Instead of thinking that life is just horrible to us and so is God. Perhaps, just perhaps its just the opposite. God case about us so very much, that he knows what we need to be doing and what we should be doing. Even though we may not understand it or recognize it. God knows that its the thing that will make our entire lives make sense. Its the one peice of the puzzle that we have always resisted because we just dont see how it can possibly fit.

This is my log of my issues with living to Avoidant Personality Disorder. My hope is that in writing this, it will help myself and perhaps others that are also struggling with this disorder and others like it. I have set up a survey on AvPD. Click here to take it. I am trying to get more information on this disorder so that we can find commonalities. Perhaps if we can learn more about this, we can figure out how to combat it and get better lives for us all.