Direction and Destination

A very interesting and thought-provoking conversation ensued with a friend, where she discussed about finding herself in a place in life that is so far removed from where she thought she would be.

In such a situation, do we question God.

God’s plans for our lives can be so different to what we intend and foresee for our lives. We strive in our careers, have an approximate timeline of marriage by a certain age, owning a home and having kids. As life goes on, maybe our plans are just not working and nothing fits in our timeline anymore. This leads us to the question; What if the Lord has something else in mind for us?

This made me reflect on the life of Daniel whose life path took a steep curve to what he probably would have imagined when he was young. The book of Daniel begins with King Nebuchadnezzar conquering the land of Judea. The king takes along with him to Babylon the Jewish Intelligentsia. Among them were Daniel along with his three friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. These men were gifted, intelligent young men belonging to nobility.

Daniel started out in life as a part of Nobility and had probably envisioned a very different view of how he would live his life, a future with a respectable position of power, marriage, Kids and no one forcing him to worship anything else other than the God of Israel. But what was his reality. At a young age he was stripped of all that he knew and took for certain, thrust into an unknown and hostile environment, forced to live in Babylon, far from home and far from the land their Lord had promised them and told to forsake His faith. But through it all we see Him display spiritual resilience, holding firm to his faith despite the isolation of exile.

Like Daniel, what if we find ourselves living a life that did not eventuate the way we thought it would? We struggle with this different path and ask God to straighten out our circumstances to get back on track, the track we want our lives to be on.

The lord calls us to believe that He will provide and that He delights in giving us good things. But above all else he desires for us to trust and follow Him. We pray for direction but do we tend to keep asking Him for direction on the path we want to be on. Shouldn’t we be asking Him: What is my earthly destination, is this where you want me to be Lord? We all know our final destination when we believe in Jesus; eternity with our king. But as we spend our days on this side of heaven let us be open to a change in our earthly destination, be open to a life led differently to what we planned but nonetheless glorifying Him. Because we know that His direction and His destination is so much more valuable than any goal or plan, we thought out for ourselves. When asking God for direction, let us be open for a change in destination.