I heard that saying on a podcast today. Sara and Erin Foster, daughters of music legend, David Foster, are designers, investors, writers, and power entrepreneurs. They are also funny as all get out. The title of their podcast debut: “The World’s First Podcast,” should tell you all you know to know about their schtick.

This phrase they used—my first time hearing it: “rejection is divine protection,” intrigued me. Because in my life, I can honestly say the bum deals, disappointments, and heartbreaks have truly been my dodging of bullets. And since I am a person of faith, I have often attributed said dodging of bullets to being pivoted from certain disaster by a power much greater—and smarter—than myself.

The concept of the divine to someone else could mean a belief in the universe, in a deity belonging to certain religions, to God himself. But wherever you stake your claim of faith or don’t, have you ever thought about things in this way? This idea that the boyfriend dumping you protected you from a horrific divorce down the road. Or how the job you lost pushed you to pursue a different passion that has become lucrative and more fulfilling than you imagined. What about pursuing a life goal where you find yourself thwarted at every turn? Why do you ask? It’s a good goal, why is everything going wrong? Perhaps that divine protection is saving your behind from something bad you can’t see.

To believe in the idea of divine protection is faith. Why believe something bigger than yourself is looking out for you? To accept that is to acknowledge that you are cared for by something you can’t see. Seems kind of ridiculous. I get it.

But like I said if I take a few moments with myself and look back (you know, how hindsight is 20/20?) I can see it. The dumping by the ex-boyfriend who bummed me out for much too long my junior year of college, was divine protection, intervention, salvation—all of that. I’m 100% positive that had I had my foolish 20-year-old wish to wind up with him (sooooo stupid!), we’d either be miserable beyond compare, I would have serious mental issues, family dynamics would be absolute hell, and I would be a very, very different person. And that’s if we hadn’t divorced it. If we did divorce, God only knows how that might have panned out for me in terms of finances, mental health, motherhood. Oh, my goodness, I shudder.

So that one school year of being in a funk led me to develop myself spiritually and emotionally. I proceeded to waste time on another waste of time, where again, a bullet was dodged. At the time, of course, it did a bit of a number on my self-esteem. However, that divine protection kept me from going down another bad road where again my life would be in the crapper had that worked out for me the way I wanted it to at the time.

I think I’ll podcast a storytime about all that this weekend, so stay tuned (The WiloPod on Spotify and Apple). In the meantime, if you feel like you’ve been dealt with a series of failures, perhaps it’s time to get still with yourself and look hard. What you perceive as something not going your way could very well be that divine protection that 1. Has kept you from a danger you can’t conceive of and 2. Might just be the impetus you need to pursue the right dream, the right course of action, the right person, the right life—for you.

Think about that. Perhaps this current rejection, loss, or heartbreak is all about getting you to be exactly where you need to be.

_{Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash}