Oh, the Places God Will Take You!
By Veronica Neffinger
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." -Proverbs 3:5-6
Looking at my stash of postcards, I can’t help but think of the Dr. Seuss book title, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”
I have been a lot of places (within the U.S. anyway): Bayfield, WI for their apple orchards and outdoor concert venue, winding Lombard Street in San Francisco, the mangroves of the Florida Keys, Pike’s Peak in Colorado...and the list goes on.
As I look at the postcards which mark each place I’ve been, I also can’t help but think that rather than the places I’ll go, the theme for my life has been “Oh, the places the Lord will take you!”
Sometimes these are literal, physical places like the ones mentioned above, but more often they are intangible places of spiritual growth.
All Christians seem to love the popular Proverbs verses: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight,” but oftentimes it seems we do not trust in God to lead us down the right metaphorical path, while we do trust our GPS to get us to that scenic overlook, that historical attraction, that famed wonder of nature--all physical realities.
I would wager that many of us have discovered the hard way that when you think you know better than your GPS and you override it, you usually end up lost.
I don’t think it would be a stretch to claim that we often do the same with God as our guide.
It’s easy to think we know best how to direct our own paths and get where we want to go, but the truth is, we probably wouldn’t have many spiritual “postcards” hanging in the room of our hearts if we went our own way.
God is trustworthy. He is always ready to prove that.
I bet many, many of us could look back on the life we have already lived and point to dozens of times when we saw God’s hand orchestrating situations, bringing certain people into our lives, opening certain doors, closing others, bringing us to a place in which we can look back and see his Providence.
Many of us will also probably admit that those paths didn’t look very straight at the time when we were in the valley, but after all, it’s the same on a map: a road may look straight from a bird’s-eye view, but when you walk or drive it, you may find it has many bends and curves.
And yet, we still trust that the road will take us where the map or a GPS said it would take us--what if we did the same in our relationship with God?
Intersecting Faith and Life: Take a few minutes to consider the path God has been leading you on and to renew your trust in His leading.
Further Reading
Psalm 48:14; Isaiah 58:11
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