Take my life, for example. After wrapping up ministry in Chicago, I returned to my home in the D.C. area armed with an M.A. in Counseling, a youthful passion and idealism not too tarnished by the grit and reality of the big city, and a zealous desire to love people on behalf of Jesus Christ. Now, it's my job to take these tools and chart a course for the path my life will take. What would be preferable, however, would be to simply pick up my Tom-tom and enter my destination: "successful counselor who specializes in work with crisis pregnancy, birthmothers considering adoption, and troubled teenaged girls", and simply follow the route it outlined for me. (Wait for it, this technology will someday be developed... most likely the day after I retire.)
That being said, here's the upside to these course charting days in which I live. I've got a greater navigator who is outlining my path through the murky waters of transition, change, and career seeking. I have found deep, abiding rest in knowing that my relationship with Christ is the single most defining and pivotal aspect of who I am, what I do, and where I'm going. If you know Christ and have experienced this yourself, then you're nodding and thinking, "Come on, Natalie, tell me something I don't already know." So, I'm really talking here to those of you who don't know Christ. I want to encourage you that if you find yourself in a place of charting the course for your life, and if you also find yourself overwhelmed and intimidated by this thought, then please hear me when I say we weren't meant to do this on our own Even more jarring is the reality that as much as we'd like to be, we weren't made to be the captain of our own ship. As we strive to direct our own path and find our own way, we are easily misled and misdirected. And a misdirected ship is one that usually ends up overtaken in the sudden storm, submerged in the heart of the sea, or shattered among the rocks.
I tell you this honestly, because I want you to know that there is a very willing navigator, not simply for your life, but for your soul. Even in the tempests of this life, I find encouragement in knowing that these waters are transient and temporary for me. I'm being led to something bigger than this life. I'm being guided towards a harbor that lasts forever on the other side of this life. Maybe you've thought about what comes next, maybe you haven't. Maybe you're too busy thinking about what's coming tomorrow. But just hear me on this, Jesus is standing by ready to know you and let you know him, and he wants a relationship with you that will last longer than just a lifetime.
When I remember this truth, I no longer worry about the fact that I can't let my Tom-tom plan my life. I continue making choices, decisions, and plans that I hope and pray will lead me where I want to go. And more importantly, I know that as I follow Jesus' leading in my life, and as I let him work out his design through those choices, decisions, and plans, I will most assuredly end up where he would like me to be. And when I arrive at my end point, I'll be with the one who got me there.
I'd like to leave you with with one of my favorite series of paintings at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. It's called The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole. These four images trace a man from infancy to old age under the guiding watch of God. I never fail to see myself in the various stages that Cole so beautifully portrays. I'm not going to promise you a personal angel decked out in white, but I can promise you the same intentional care and guidance of the God who wants to know you. He's just waiting for you to invite him aboard, step back from the ship's wheel, and rest in the course he's charted for you.
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