Giving Purpose to the Journey

I’m on a journey today - traveling with my little Picasso to appointments that he needs. He struggles with things that can’t be immediately fixed, but God is giving purpose to the journey that he is on, and there is so much beauty.

Purpose to the journey - that got me thinking about my own life. What I’m sharing here are just my thoughts. They are the wanderings of my mind on this day, on this particular journey, which is a part of a greater journey. And I’m thankful to be following God on the journey of life.

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The sky is blue. The clouds are white.
The leaves seem so alive as we pass hillside after hillside arrayed in color.
Today is a beautifully bright, crisp, fall day and I am soaking it all in.
It’s amazing how very aware we become, even of small, seemingly insignificant things, when they’re almost taken away from us.

Once upon a time, I thought that my story to share with you would be that of a slightly-overscheduled, almost-always-a-little-tired mother and wife, doing her best to shine for Jesus in her small corner of the world. And while that is still very true, it’s interesting how God allows us to go to places that we maybe wouldn’t have chosen for ourselves.

And maybe it isn’t even that He allows us to go to those places, but rather that His love does not prevent our free will in making choices that may end up carrying us to some of the places we never planned to go.

That may be the reason that I’ve traveled through the valley recently.

Or, it may not be the reason.

Maybe God has something bigger on the far side of the valley, at the top of that mountain that will mark the end of so much of the brokenness that has been a part of my life lately.

Whether or not there is a reason that would define this journey, I know for sure that God takes our journey and gives it a purpose.

I am as sure of that as I am of the blood that runs through my body.

My natural instinct, when faced with an extremely difficult circumstance, is to panic. I want it to be fixed, corrected, repaired immediately. I want so desperately for the reason of the problem to be fixed…immediately. My timetable doesn’t always line up with God’s, though.

I’m learning that the purpose - the purpose that God gives - in our journey, can produce greater beauty than just fixing what caused the problem in the first place.

And that’s how I came to notice the blue sky, the white clouds and the trees dancing in the beautiful fall sunshine.

So often we can find ourselves in tough situations, and every once in a while we can find ourselves in the fight of our life.

God knew that, before He even created us.

And sometimes the choices we make can put us in a place where everything almost breaks, beyond repair.

Those are the moments when I go back to the things I know - to the things my heart knows, no matter what.

God is good. His name is more powerful.
The enemy will try to sneak in, trying to incite a riot of fear in our hearts.
If I wait on God - truly wait - He will direct my paths.

Waiting on God - I’m always stumped by that. What does it look like? How do I know I’m truly waiting on God?

I think being in those situations - the ones we can’t control - teach us to wait. It’s those times when all we can do is to be still. We can’t change our circumstances, we can’t predict the outcome, we can’t move things onto our timetable.

All we can do is raise empty hands to heaven and wait on God to work around us.

That is a hard place to be, and if I’m being honest, I’d be happy to run away, fast, from anything that puts me in that situation.

But, God.

Because when we raise our empty hands and set in our hearts that we will wait on God, He begins giving purpose to the journey we find ourselves on.

He gently molds us, He works in and among us, drawing us closer to Him. He reassures us of His love, of His grace and mercy.

It’s in those tough times, those soul-crushing painful times, that we can hear God, maybe even more clearly than any other time.

Why? Because when things are broken, when they’ve almost fallen apart, all that’s left is Jesus.

And in those times, I begin to notice the small, simple things in life that add beauty to our journey.

And on this day,

The sky was blue. The clouds were white.
The leaves seemed so alive as we passed hillside after hillside arrayed in color.
Today was a beautifully bright, crisp, fall day and I loved soaking it all in.

It’s amazing how very aware we become, even of small, seemingly insignificant things, when they’re almost taken away from us.

And when God is merciful enough to give it back to us, the journey we’re on becomes full of purpose.

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