All shall be well…

How this phrase changed my life.

I’m sure that you have heard the phrase “All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” Or in simple terms “All is well”. This was my phrase of the year in 2020. Ironic or prophetic?

I’ve been choosing words and songs of the year for about 6 or 7 years now. I can’t say that I always figure out the meaning during the year, but I do contemplate whatever I think it means in my life. For 2020, I think we can agree that “all wasn’t well”, but it changed my life in all kinds of positive ways. I know I repeated those words on so many occasions that year.

We came home from school in March 2020. I had 3 hours to make lesson plans and get out of my classroom, I ended up “teaching” online for the rest of the school year. Since I suddenly found myself at home, once it got warmer, I went out and met my neighbors and they helped me plant flowers in the front of my house. Another neighbor planted a community garden on the side of my house and we ate fresh veggies.

Since it was my phrase of the year, I started reading about Julian of Norwich, a female mystic who lived in the late 14th century. She had visions of God that she shares in her writings. It about how God is love and how it’s in being faithful in everything that “all shall be well”. I understood her writings much better than the “explanation” of them. I may not be a theology scholar, but I gathered the nuggets I needed from her writing to keep on.

As the events in my life have rolled along since that summer, I am continually reminded that even when all doesn’t look “well”, it perfectly is. God puts the right people and right opportunities in my path. He removes people and situations from my path, when needed. God’s timing is not mine and that is sometimes frustrating to me in the moment. Now when the frustration comes, I think- “Ok God, there must be a reason I can’t see.”

Next time you are frustrated that things are not going your way, take a moment to think that all might be exactly as it should be, and all really is well.