March 10, 2009
If you want to live well, make sure you understand all of this. If you know what's good for you, you'll learn this inside and out. God's paths get you where you want to go. Right-living people walk them easily; wrong-living people are always tripping and stumbling. –Hosea 14:9
It's not far down to paradise/ At least it's not for me/ And if the wind is right you can sail awayAnd find tranquility/ The canvas can do miracles/ Just you wait and see/ Believe me
Sailing/ Takes me away/ To where I've always heard it could be/ Just a dream and the wind to carry me/ And soon I will be free
I will be honest; when I read this passage, Christopher Cross’ “Sailing” was the first thing that popped in my head. I began to sing it and sway from side to side like I do every time I hear or think about that song. To me, it is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. Cross said that he wrote it because, as a teenager, he and his friends would resort to sailing to stay out of trouble and escape life’s trials and tribulations. Being in the midst of God’s creation kept him close to the Father and His plan for his life. Had he not gone sailing as a child, he may have never been all that God wanted him to be and the world may have never heard the beauty that is “Sailing”. Now, I completely understand why I thought of that song as I read this passage.
God has a plan for all of us. Okay; and how many times have you heard that? Exactly. He has a plan for us: this we know. Sometimes it’s what that plan actually is that can perplex us. Are we supposed to be working where we’re working or is God telling us to step out and do a new venture? Is God calling us to sow into the life of someone and we don’t necessarily understand why? Is this path requiring a level that we’ve not yet reached or are afraid to? Do we really want to, right now, let go of what we know we have to let go of to get where we need to go? Does God plan require that we walk away from a love we believed would be forever? All of these are valid questions. I once was rushing trying to get the answers to them and my brother Robert told me plainly “Sis, you’re not that special. You probably won’t ever get the answers but you just keep living anyway.” For a moment, his “take it or leave it” honesty made me mad but I got what he was trying to get me to understand.
If I am in the hand of God, He has me. No man put me there and no man can take me out of it. No adverse circumstance can affect the Lord’s will for my life because everything has to be permitted by Him. He gives permission to my life. Wow. God permits me to live. How can we not yield to such power? What I like about this passage is that it says “Right-living people walk them (God’s path) easily.” Don’t be confused. This doesn’t mean that the Elect of us won’t have problems; we do and they will continue. But what this means is that we don’t frustrate, worry, cold calculate, cry or fear going through them. We walk (easily, might I add) through life because we understand that God has mapped it out to our benefit. That phone call out of the blue brought you closer to purpose. That school acceptance letter pushed you a little further into destiny. The ability to love yourself more and walk into every promise spoken over your life helped make things clearer. And that sailing trip back in the day allowed you to appreciate it all.
©BirthRight, 2009
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