“If it’s meant to be”

Mary Clare Bean

As Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line once said, “If it’s meant to be, it’ll be…” For some, this is an excellent way to live life in a laid-back and carefree way. For others, this message is a harder pill to swallow, as it gives them a sense of false hope.

As Catholics, we are expected to believe everything that happens to us has been carefully thought out and planned by God. 

We are expected to put our trust in someone that we cannot physically touch and talk to face to face. 

We are expected to understand that there are things we cannot understand. 

We are expected to read between the lines and to interpret those situations to the best of our ability.

Most times, we tend to be a little biased in those interpretations because we know what we want and we do anything that will help with the outcome we want. Essentially, we put ourselves in charge of our own life and plan it out the way we think is best instead of going with His original plan. Doing that sends us down a winding road of overthinking, planning out scenarios, and getting frustrated when things aren’t going our way. 

As for the false hope, we grab on to the tiniest possible positive outcome in a sea of negative outcomes and put all our faith in hoping to defy the odds. We try to find any way to avoid those negative possibilities and brainwash ourselves to believe that only good will come from the situation. We put all our time and effort into persuading ourselves that the good will outweigh the bad and hope that everything will turn out the way you dreamed of. For me, this is the worst thing I could do, but yet I still do it. I tend to choose to believe in things even though all the over thinking and false hope just tears me down faster than I built it up. 

Straining yourself to believe in the impossible is tiring. Accepting the situation for what it is is harder than it seems. Needing an answer and reassurance for anything and everything is selfish. —This is why we need to put our life in God’s hands. 

I understand that we want to decide our futures for ourselves. It’s hard to see that God is there for us and he has everything planned out perfectly for us. We just have to put our faith in him and hope for the best. 

What is meant to be, will be.