As a child growing up I have always been challenged with the idea of taking risks in life - that there is no mountain too high or any obstacle too big. My parents instilled into my siblings and I to always follow God’s Spirit no matter where it would take us.
So, here I sit in a cafe in Costa Rica thinking, reflecting, feeling blessed that I have always followed my dreams and have left nothing on the table. I have laid it all out there and have followed God’s leading which has taken me around the world and has allowed me to pastor many wonderful people in my journey of life.
I like the saying that “the journey is the destination.” It is that feeling of being blessed and content no matter where I am or what I am doing.
I have to admit that there were times when I was waiting for my ship to come in or for my lucky break or for my next assignment. To be honest - this is a frustrating place to be. It is not the way God intended for any of us to live our lives.
I have taken many teams to many countries around the world, and often (this present team is an exception - they are awesome happy servants of Jesus) people start complaining about the food, or not being what they are used to, the beds being too hard, the pace too much, the weather too hot, etc.
I always try to encourage everyone who comes with me to enjoy the journey, to experience the blessings of being in another country, to make themselves available to hear God and allow Him to make some needed alignments in their life. I encourage them to ask God to help you see the world as He sees it and for God to increase your love for people.
In the classic novel: “Alice in Wonderland,” Alice comes to a fork in the road. One path leads one way, and the other path leads the other… and she asks the Cheshire Cat for advice:
“Would you tell me please,” she asks “which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the cat.
“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
There are a lot of people who (just like Alice) don’t seem to know where they’re going. They just kind of drift thru life. For all intents and purposes it looks like they’re not going anywhere… and they are not really doing all that much with their lives.
But if you were to ask them, I think most would say they really want to do more with their lives. They’d like to believe that there’s more to living than just “getting by”. They’d like to believe they have a reason to live.
And, you know, that’s natural, because God has built that yearning into our hearts.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men…”
He has set the belief (in your heart and in mine) that there’s more to life than just “living”. It’s like He’s created this big hole inside of us… this feeling that we’re meant for more than just surviving in this life.
But many people aren’t quite sure what their purpose in life might be.
The problem for most people is they don’t know where they’re going and they’re not sure they ever will.
Dan Baker, a Medical psychologist and the author of “What Happy People Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Life For the Better”...
He interviewed 1000s of people in the US who were age 100 and better and he discovered:
“What these folks have in common is a general sense of optimism, an ability to deal well with loss” In great part because of their spiritual beliefs eased emotional burdens.
These were people that had learned that the LORD was their shepherd. That He would never leave them. Never forsake them.
But there is a catch: There is something that we must do in order to have this kind of assurance in our lives. There is something we
must be willing to commit to in order to have God as our shepherd.
We’ve got to let God BE the shepherd. We’ve got to be willing to let Him take over.
We’ve got to follow the Spirit without doubting. We need to walk by faith and just go.
That’s not easy for many people. In fact while there are plenty of people who say they would like to serve God – they only want to do so in an advisory capacity.
In other words… they don’t want God to be the shepherd. They don’t want God taking over the direction of their lives.
WHY? Because God might not get it right… He just might mess it up.
We walk with a lot of fear and as a result we never step out of our comfort zone.
One of my favorite stories is about a famous actor was once the guest of honor at a social gathering where he received many requests to recite favorite excerpts from various literary works.
An old preacher was amongst the audience and he asked the actor to recite the twenty-third Psalm. The actor agreed on the condition that the preacher would also recite it as well.
The actor stood and began to recite the famous Psalm and it was everything you could expect from a polished thespian. The phrases were elegant, his voice rose and fell to give each thought it’s proper emphasis. And when he finished, the crowd broke into a lengthy applause.
Then the old preacher rose. His voice was rough and broken from many years of preaching, and his diction was anything but polished. But when he finished there was not a dry eye in the room.
Later, when someone asked the actor what made the difference, he replied "I know the psalm… but he knows the Shepherd."
If you really know “The Shepherd” today you will not fear about where and when God puts the “go” into your life.
Lay it all out there today and just “go” - doubting nothing. You will be glad you did.
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