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We’re in a big season of change over here.
Last weekend, I got to watch my oldest child walk across the stage and receive his college diploma. There’s something about seeing your child in a cap and gown that hits you in the gut in the best possible way. It’s pride and nostalgia and “how is time moving this fast?” all rolled into one.
What you can’t see when he smiles for the camera is just how winding and painful the road to that stage really was.
He earned a scholarship to play college football. Throughout his childhood, that was the dream. Football wasn’t just a sport he loved, it was how he understood himself. It was his community, his structure, his identity.
And then came a series of serious injuries. The kind of injuries that don’t just threaten your season, they threaten your future. Eventually, he had to do the unthinkable: walk away from the sport that had shaped so much of who he believed he was.
He had surgery and took a semester off to recover. Then began not weeks, not months, but years of physical therapy as he worked to heal. On paper, that semester off might look like a pause or a setback. But in reality, it became a turning point.
In the Quiet, There Was Guidance
Without the constant noise and pressure of football, he had space. Space to heal, yes, but also space to ask bigger questions:
- Who am I if I’m not “the football guy”?
- What do I actually love?
- What kind of life do I want to build?
Somewhere in that quiet, he stumbled into a passion for financial investing. Numbers, markets, strategy, long-term planning… all of it lit him up. One thing led to another: he changed his major, landed an incredible internship, and spent the last three years growing in a field he hadn’t even considered before his injuries. And that internship eventually turned into an offer for his dream job.
Becoming Who We're Meant to Be Often Requires Devine Redirection
If you had told him, back when he was in the middle of the injuries and identity loss, that this was where it would all lead, I’m not sure he would have believed you. At the time, it felt like doors were slamming shut in his face. But I kept reminding him, as gently as possible, that even when things feel painful, God is working behind the scenes for our highest good.
Looking back now, he can see all of it as Divine redirection.
The Universe has this way of nudging (and sometimes shoving) us off paths that are too small for who we’re becoming. It almost never feels graceful when it’s happening. It feels like loss. It feels unfair. It feels like “Why me?” and “Now what?”
But with the right mindset, those slammed doors can be invitations. Invitations to ask deeper questions., to connect with what lights us up, and to step into a version of ourselves we never would have met otherwise.
Experiences Happen For Us, Not to Us
Watching my son’s journey has been a living reminder that we don’t always get to choose the plot twists, but we do get to choose how we meet them. We can cling desperately to what was, or we can (eventually, and often reluctantly) open our hearts and ask, “Okay, what if this is actually happening for me?”
That’s a question I’ve been sitting with in my own life.
It’s part of what led me to create my first online course, Stop Shrinking: A 30-Day Path to Calm Inner Authority. It’s for those seasons when life doesn’t look the way we thought it would, and we’re tempted to collapse in on ourselves, doubt our worth, or silence our own intuition.
I’ll be sharing more details about the course very soon, but for now I just want to leave you with this: If something in your life feels like a closed door right now, what if you gave yourself permission to see it as possible redirection, rather than proof that you’re failing?
You don’t have to pretend it doesn’t hurt. You don’t have to rush to the silver lining. You can be honest about the grief and stay open to the idea that something unexpected and beautiful might be on the other side of this.
The Universe hasn’t forgotten you.
You are not behind.
You are being reshaped.
As you move through the upcoming week, let yourself rest in that truth.
With love,
Jessica
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The Inner Light
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