Journeying With God

Last month I reached a significant milestone on my writing journey – ten years since I began blogging and shared my words with others for the first time. 

     When I hit “publish” on that first post, I had no idea what I was doing or what to expect, but I sensed God’s call to write, and it has been an interesting journey.

      As I’ve reflected on it, my mind has been drawn to some of the journeys we read of in the Bible and the lessons they have to teach us about journeying with God as we seek to obey his calling.

      Firstly, journeys often involve stepping out in faith. God doesn’t usually give us a detailed road map. Abraham was called to leave his home and go to the land God was showing him, but he received no specific plan of the route he was to take. Similarly, as the Israelites travelled to the Promised Land, God led them by a pillar of cloud and fire. Rather than knowing the whole route in advance, they had to trust him for each step. I’ve certainly felt the same about my writing journey – even after ten years I’m not very sure where I’m going, but I am compelled to keep travelling!

      Secondly, if we are journeying with God, it comes with blessing. Abraham may not have received the details of his journey, but God did promise to bless him. I have been incredibly blessed on my writing journey by the community and friendships I’ve found, by unexpected opportunities that have arisen, by occasions where God has used my words to help or encourage others, and by the way learning to express myself in writing has built my confidence and helped me speak up more generally in life. However, the blessings may not always look like we expect.

      This leads on to my next point: there will always be ups and downs, and God may not always lead us by the quickest or most obvious route. 

     As the Israelites began their journey out of Egypt, God did not lead them by the shortest way: “God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.^” (Exodus 13:17-18 NLT)

      When Paul set out on his second missionary journey, twice God prevented him from going where he planned to go, eventually redirecting him to Macedonia.

      We can’t always understand why God is leading us in a certain way, or why things may not work out as we expect or hope. I’ve certainly had moments like that in my writing journey, but sometimes with hindsight I’ve seen how God used those times to teach me or to lead me to where he wanted me to be.

      Perhaps the most important lesson of all is that the journey is not all about the destination, but about learning to trust God along the way as we seek to follow his lead.

Lesley Crawford blogs at Life In The Spacious Place and contributes regularly at Gracefully Truthful. She has written One Big Story, a Bible curriculum for school groups and contributed to various anthologies, including the ACW anthology, "Merry Christmas, Everyone" and "The Jesse Tree Anthology".