Have you ever been told, “You’re reading too much into it?”

Maybe it was a friend who told you this and you’d been wondering aloud about the curious behavior of someone else.

Or maybe you’d been the one doing the telling when a friend was confused about why a series of events kept occurring the way they did.

The other day at work, my phone died. I’m not sure how—it was at 53% when I left my car and it stayed in my pocket, until two hours later I pulled it out to check the time and the screen was black. I tried again to turn it on, and the dead battery image popped up.

This didn’t make sense, considering my phone hadn’t been used at all for those past two hours, and 53% is a reasonable amount of battery, versus 10%, right?

As I got into my car that night, I plugged my phone into the charger in my car and waited—I didn’t think it would charge because quite frankly, the charger in my car sucks. So I drove home, my car silent. On the inside I was annoyed: I had notifications to check, messages to respond to, voicenotes to listen to.

Then I thought: what if God is trying to tell me something? Maybe I’m going to miss something if I’m playing music versus sitting in my car in silence.

And then I realized: I’m reading too much into it.

Some days, your phone just dies and there’s no existential meaning to it.

There’s no deep meaning for my phone dying. It is very likely that I just accidentally left it turned on while it was silently playing music. It was not to eventually teach me a message like, “Sometimes life is better without a phone,” or “You need to do this or that.” The phone just died.

I think that the younger generations are so strongly searching for the meaning of life and to find where their true identity lies that we have become accustomed to finding meanings to every single thing that happens in life.

“I’m gluten-intolerant…is that God telling me I need to diet more?”

“My situationship unfollowed me on Insta…does that mean I’m supposed to be the one pursuing them to bring them to Christ?”

“I saw an apple tree as I was driving through town—is God saying that I’m going to tempted soon?!”

Or… “My phone died unexpectedly. Is God telling me something?”

Sometimes life just happens and although the Lord does speak to us through our situations, not every situation is a direct, divine message.

That isn’t to say that we don’t have things to learn, though. Every experience, interaction, and moment can teach us something either about ourselves, the world, or the Lord.

Our generation is one that is growing closer to the Lord but it is also one that reads too much into certain situations that might just be life happening.

‘Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.’
1 Corinthians 4:5 NIV

Scripture says that we shouldn’t just jump to conclusions—whatever is hidden in the darkness or is unknown will be revealed in time.

But it’s good to have discernment. Don’t throw away something that could be big and say, “Eh, the Bible says don’t read into things.”

Approach these matters with wisdom, prayer, and consultation with mentors and leaders who are willing to be honest with you.

Friends who are lovingly honest are one of the greatest blessings I’ve encountered. I’m so grateful for the friends who are bold enough to be upfront and say, “Willow, you’re reading too much into it. This thing happened because it just happened.“

It’s important to not let emotional attachment override better judgement, but we also shouldn’t let casual indifference cloud our wisdom either.

‘We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.’
2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV

Paul writes in his second letter to the church of Corinth that we should take our every thought and submit it to the will of Christ. If that means not letting our thoughts run rampant with trying to interpret the small details of life just happening, then that’s what we should do. We’re not meant to know the reasoning for every occurrence—that is for the Lord to know.

Thanks for reading, have a great day!
~Willow