The Destiny Thieves

F. Scott Fitzgerald is most famous for his third novel “The Great Gatsby,” and it deserves all the praise it’s gotten over the years. Fitzgerald was a wonderful writer and could have had a long writing career if it weren’t for two things: his addiction and his wife.

You see, Scott (as his friends called him) was an alcoholic by the time he finished college. He came from an upper-class family and married a socialite, which led to a non-stop string of parties and lavish living. His wife, Zelda Sayre, was also an alcoholic, so there was no interference from her about how much he drank. In fact, he was legendary for his extraordinarily heavy drinking. He was a member of what was dubbed “The Lost Generation,” and what he lost was the full power of his God-given ability to write – and ultimately, his life. He died of a second heart attack at the age of 44.

So, addiction robbed him of his destiny, but so did Zelda. Though various biographers will insist that she influenced Scott’s writing, she was actually a great hindrance to it, and on purpose. Hemingway, in his book “A Moveable Feast,” talks about how jealous Zelda was of her husband’s writing and how she consistently found ways to undermine it. When Scott would swear off alcohol so that he could write, Zelda would go on a bender that he would eventually join her in. And so on.

Now, it turned out that Zelda was eventually diagnosed with a mental illness (though there seems to be confusion as to her specific diagnosis) and she spent many years in specialized care hospitals. That could certainly account for her alcoholism, as a form of self-medication. No one chooses mental illness, and no one ever intends to become an addict of anything, so I am certainly not trying to cast aspersions on Zelda or Scott.

What I am trying to do is to say that there are plenty of things that are happy to distract us away from who God created us to be, from the joy set before us. Sometimes, that thing is an addiction. If that’s your struggle, please get help. You will never live out the fullness of God’s call on your life as long as you are an addict – to anything.

Sometimes, that thing is a person. The person might be well-meaning and try to “reason” you out of your destiny with fine-sounding arguments. The person might try to sabotage your destiny out of jealousy or fear. If you can stay away from people like this, please do. For the sake of your destiny. For the sake of all the people on the Earth whom you were meant to bless.

If you are married to that person, pray. A LOT. Contend in the heavenlies for your destiny and for your spouse. And try to keep in mind that people are brokenhearted and love imperfectly. Including you. I recommend writing down their litany of anti-destiny comments in a journal. It’s a way of putting those comments in jail. They are under your control now. Address them; explain to them why they are wrong. And then don’t think about them anymore. Just get on with your destiny.

Are there any destiny thieves in your life? How will you deal with them? Please share your thoughts in the blog comments below, on Twitter or on Facebook.

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