I'm been learning, the past few months, that I don't know everything. I have had all these plans in mind, the way I want and think things should be. I plan things down to the second because it makes me feel safer and more confident to know when things are going to happen. But sometimes, most times for me, God doesn't work that way. I spend all this time telling God I planned this and this and this. And he comes back with Okay kiddo, but lets call that plan B alright? I've got something better in mind for you.
Life really is a huge step of faith. Every time I picture what that looks like for me I think of the Indiana Jones movie, "The Last Crusade". In one particular scene, Indiana Jones comes to a big gap in the path he is supposed to be taking. To him, it looks like a big gaping hole he could never just jump on over. But he knows there has to be an "easier" way across. He consults his little book (in this instance is where we as Christians crack open our Bibles to see what God would have us to do next), and he finds the quote "Only in the leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth". He thinks There's no way anyone can jump that far. And he says outloud It's a leap of faith. (Are you following me yet?)
So what does he do? He takes a deep breath and steps out. And as it turns out, there's a path in front of him. A path that had been there all along but he couldn't see it. It blended into the background of the gap in front of him, and because he was so concerned with the unknown he was facing, he couldn't see that there was a safe, easy way across.
{Top picture is what he saw. But at another angle (bottom picture) there's the path :) If you can't picture all this happening in your head, and you haven't seen the movie, look up the clip on YouTube. There's a lesson there.}
Proverbs 3:5-6 is a verse that a lot of people know but don't put into practice. It says
"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"
That doesn't necessarily mean it will be easy. Nowhere in that verse does it say that he'll tell you what's next or let you decide when things will happen. It just says that if we TRUST God with ALL of your heart and not try to understand everything, he'll make your path straight. It's so so important that we let go (submit) of that Lord/Leader spot in our lives and actually allow God to take the reins and just follow where he leads.
A lesson to live by :) And something I need to work on.