Taking the Lead in Your Life

Life. Our life. It's so full of activities, concerns, duties and obligations that it is difficult to focus on the more important aspects of it. James Fowler writes we look for something to love that loves us, something to value that gives us value, something to honor and respect that has the power to sustain our being (Stages of Faith, 5). And because we sometimes stumble, we tend to give our search over to someone else.

I'm reminded of a recent cartoon that shows Moses in front of the Israelites in the desert. Moses is saying, "Follow me!" and heading off to who knows where. In the background is his wife, asking someone for directions. And the captions reads, "After 39.5 years in the desert, Mrs. Moses finally asks for direction." Despite the obvious play on our concept of men not wanting to ask for anything, the picture made an impact on me. Moses was leading the people of God. And however way you want to interpret this journey, they spent 40 years wandering around and getting no where.

The thought is, are we suppose to follow? Or do we each have our own inner commands from God to break from our habits of slavery and cross that threshold of complacency into a life different from our old ways? Are we not to meet God in the meeting tents of our hearts to learn his will for us and to take on new challenges? How many of us have allowed ourselves to be led, only to find out we weren't led to where we were suppose to be? I can never gain back the years lost. So I must learn as early as possible how to discern the way God has destined for me, and not surrender my life into the hands of another.

Jesus called it "the way" and he invites me and you and everyone else to it. The one I must follow is him. And I have the wisdom to do so, because he has put it into my heart. To break from this source and to attach myself to another is to deny the power of God in my own life. And it is to wander for a very long time while someone else leads to only God knows where.