Who Directs Your Steps?

Who directs your steps?

When I was in my twenties I used to worry a lot.  Even though, I knew that I should trust God, for some reason I just couldn’t do it. Time and time again I tried to control all situations, and as a result found myself in a constant state of anxiety worrying about what might go wrong. 

Fast forward about forty years, and I find myself in a completely different state. I have learned to trust God, and his timing. The words of Proverbs 16:9, “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps,” helps to remind me who actually is in charge. 

That being said, sometimes opportunities present themselves in such a way that you have no doubt the hand of the Lord must be involved. Except, that sometimes they don’t play out as you imagined they should, and you come away confused or hurt wondering why you had been led in that direction? You see it’s easy to think that if God is ordering our steps then everything should turn out just perfectly, but sometimes that is not the case.

That’s where the real trust comes into play. Sometimes we have to just try something out in order to learn which direction not to go. Sometimes we need to spend just enough time doing something to fully convince ourselves that it is not where we need to be at that moment.

I remember once being offered a teaching position during my retirement years, and although I had some reservations I pushed them aside thinking that this must be part of God’s plan since it had literally popped into my life out of the blue. I reluctantly accepted the position, and found myself regretting it right away. It was too many hours, and too young of an age for me. I kept wondering why it had been offered to me in the first place if I was feeling so negatively about it? What I learned from that long nine month experiment was that it was time for me to move forward, and time to stop identifying only as an elementary school teacher. 

I truly believe that God uses both good and bad situations to teach us the lessons we need to learn, and you need to be paying attention. Sometimes the lessons have to do with you and your personal growth, and sometimes they have to do with your relationships with others. 

It seems over the last few years I’ve come across more of these situations, or maybe it’s just that I’ve become more aware of His hand in my life. Sometimes as I head down a path certain it is the right direction, I later find that it was put there to help me better understand what I didn’t want. Kind of like a process of elimination as you hone into the purpose you were placed on this earth to accomplish. 

The lesson I’ve learned from this is to be open to the people and opportunities that are put in your path, and to be open to the lessons they might provide. Both joy and sorrow are all a part of life, but putting your trust in God will allow you to make it through even the toughest times. 

“If we will walk humbly with our God, he will lead us by the hand to exactly who and what we need, to those people, things, and experiences he has designed and intended just for us, and this alone will be the cause of deep fulfillment and happiness.”

Matthew Kelly