Finding the right path in life can seem like looking for Waldo. But God looks at it differently.
Isaiah 43:19: “Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.”
I love the outdoors. I hike as often as I can, normally a couple of times a week. So I love the visual of Isaiah
“I am about to do something new.”
“Even now it is coming.”
“Do you not see it?”
“I will make a way in the wilderness.”
It sounds colossal. Grand. Breathtaking. It reminds me of the rush of a great waterfall somewhere up the trail. I cannot see it. The winding path and the canopy of trees hide it from view, yet the ever-increasing crescendo of falling water is unmistakable. Something is ahead. My steps quicken. I want to see what lies around the next bend.
That is how I would like to feel about the fulfillment of God’s plan for me: not apprehension, but breathless anticipation. Unfortunately, that is not always how it works. Second only to the fear of what God may ask me to do is the fear of where He may ask me to go.
Ezekiel 1:12: “And each went straight forward; wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go, without turning as they went.”
Wherever the Spirit was about to go, without turning. There is something intimidating about that kind of obedience. I like knowing where I am going, having a plan. I especially like knowing I will like the destination. But what if I don’t? What if I Don’t Like the Destination?
Psalm 32:8, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.”
The Path
Notice what God does not say. He does not say He will guide us along an easy path, or the most comfortable path, the shortest path, or even the path we would have chosen. He says He will guide us along the best pathway for our lives.
There is an element of trust we must overcome if we are ever going to live a fulfilling life through Christ. Once we start down that path, He promises to advise us and watch over us. But it begins with a very basic question:
Do I trust Him enough to believe He knows the better road?
For most of my adult Christian life, I heard people joke about God sending them to Africa. Africa seemed to be the ultimate Christian threat. “Be careful how completely you surrender your life to God. He might send you to Africa.”
Africa was where the hard-core missionaries went. Surrender everything. Live in a grass hut. Eat strange food. Give your entire life to the mission field. It was certainly not the destination most of my upper-middle-class Christian friends were volunteering for.
Fast-Forward to Today.
It was never my plan to go to Africa.
Even when I agreed to work with IMED—International Micro-Enterprise Development—I did not give much thought to the destination. I thought about the work. I thought about using the skills God had given me to help people build businesses, improve their lives, and strengthen their communities.
Then I looked around. This year alone, I have traveled to Africa, Kyrgyzstan, and Honduras three times. Somewhere along the way, I ended up visiting places I never imagined. And something interesting happened. The destination stopped mattering.
The work mattered. The people mattered. The opportunity to use what God had given me mattered.
I think we may spend too much time worrying about where God might send us and not enough time asking what He wants us to do. If we have enough passion for the what, the where has a way of taking care of itself.
Psalm 73: “You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.”
A Glorious Destiny
A glorious destiny. That sounds wonderful, but there is still a problem. I want a map. As the saying goes, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” Even once I come to grips with the idea that what God wants for me may be better than anything I would choose for myself, I am still left with the problem of figuring out what He wants me to do.
That can be hard. I naturally gravitate toward what I understand. God’s plan often becomes clear only a little at a time. We live in a land of opportunity. Virtually every day, I hear about another opportunity to serve God in a special way. The needs are overwhelming. Add to that the joy shown by those already serving, and almost everything looks worthwhile.
Everything seems important. Everything seems needed. But everything is not necessarily mine to do.
So how do I know? I wish I had a formula. I don’t.
There are Many Steps but one Destination
There were several years between the first time I heard about IMED and when I became involved. Roswell Day of Hope was almost the opposite. We were looking for something to put our effort behind, and RDH seemed to come together right in front of us. It was a struggle, but piece after piece kept falling into place.
The prison ministry was different again. That was a path I probably never would have taken, except that I was helping a friend. But it became a crash course in sharing my faith.
Looking back, none of them followed the same path. That is why I keep returning to a lesson I have learned over the years: Each season uses the last to prepare us for the next. God does not waste our experiences. The successes, failures, relationships, disappointments, skills, opportunities, and even detours can become part of what He uses next.
The destination we see ahead of us may not be the destination at all. It may simply be the next mile marker.
Maybe that is why God does not always show us the whole trail. If I could see every mountain, valley, wrong turn, difficult climb, and unexpected destination before I started, I might never take the first step.
The Whole Trail
But I don’t need to see the whole trail. I need to take the next step. For my money, I would concentrate on the what and let God handle the where. If I am using the gifts He gave me, doing work that matters, serving people He places in front of me, and following where He leads, the destination becomes far less important.
After all, the destination was never really the point.
Following Him was.
Psalm 48:14 “For that is what God is like. He is our God forever and ever, and He will guide us until we die.”
