By KRISTAN DOOLEY
We walked all over Chicago that day, eight miles to be exact. Ella, my oldest daughter, didn’t once worry about our route. Our trip to Chicago and tickets to see Hamilton were her 14th birthday present (which was completely amazing by the way!). Before we got there, she told me where she wanted to go, what stores she hoped to shop and the food she intended to eat (macaroons, noodles, chocolate, coffee). With the desires of her heart in my head, I studied the city map and led her in the direction of her favorite places. We only had to reroute once!
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your way straight.”
Here’s my thinking…I’m an imperfect parent at best and also not great with maps or directions, and still my girl and I had the best time traveling together on the streets in Chicago. We talked and we laughed and we ate and we celebrated. It was good and oh so rich. Thinking about it now reminds me that it never was really much about where we were going or when we were going to get there. We didn’t preemptively set time allotments. We simply showed up and embraced the journey. When we did miss one of the stores she wanted to see we shrugged our shoulders, turned around and trecked it back three-quarters of a mile. No sense in traveling all the way to Chicago and not doing it all.
There are some days I get too caught up in the details. I worry about our scheduling, juggling two active teenagers, a young church plant, a job, and a family. I worry about my girls and their future, and if they doing the things now that they should be doing so they will be prepared for college. Should they give up dance or try out for another soccer team? What are the right choices? What choices are risky?
Over the past four years, I’ve learned to pause, take a deep breath and embrace the journey called life. I’ve come to know and experience the goodness of our Father. He is perfect in every way and He is dedicated to showing us the way. Ella didn’t run ahead of me that day in Chicago- she couldn’t because she didn’t have the map. She didn’t lag behind me, ultimately robbing us of time together. She walked with me side-by-side. As we traveled, we figured it out. And in the end, our day wasn’t about what we bought or where we went as much as it was how we journeyed. It was about being together.
The Father has already figured it out and could do my life in an instant, yet He says, “Come walk beside me and I will show you how it’s done.” He could easily lay out the plans and give me the map (because man can I talk and sometimes whine a lot!) But that’s not what He does. He doesn’t work like this because life is about traveling together. It’s about planning and laughing and talking and walking. It’s back-tracking and redirecting and learning and growing. His invitation to walk beside us and His posture of being willing to guide us are more in our favor than we will ever know.
FOR FURTHER THOUGHT What about you? Do you have a tendency to run ahead, anxious for the plans of the future to fall in place? Or are you more apt to lag behind, nervously not wanting to be a part of anything that might not work out in the long run? The Father is reaching out to you. He longs to journey with you, to guide you and grow you. The roads of life are where the best conversations unfold and the deepest relationships develop. Will you take His hand, slow your pace and walk side-by-side? Will you trust Him with what you cannot see? What does it look like for you to practically do that today?
PRAYER Father, thank You that You don’t stay far off and distant, that You are here, fully present and fully available for me. I don’t want to run ahead nor do I want to lag behind. Help me do what it takes to walk in step with Your Spirit. Fill me now with the power of Your presence and pull me in more deeply to Your promised love. I love You and I need You. Amen.
KRISTAN DOOLEY
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