I spent a lot of years wandering, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life.
There have been times when I have looked back on those years and wished I could have them back. I have thought about all the things I would have done differently in order to expedite my journey and wished that I'd done them.
Over time, though, I've learned to love all of my wanderings and to see them as necessary and vital to the person I've become, and to my calling in life. Nothing was wasted, in other words. It was all part of the journey.
I was reading through some of the Proverbs in the Hebrew Scriptures this morning and came across this one:
Many are the plans of a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. - Proverbs 19:21
It got me thinking about the fact that once I got my mind around the idea that God has greater purposes for me than I could ever imagine---grand ideas, wonderful things, abundant life... that's when I started to see all of my wanderings differently.
But far too many people never get past their regrets and spend their lives looking constantly in the rearview mirror, neither fully realizing their true purpose nor fully embracing it in joy.
And too many people live without being able to recognize that all of the good things in their lives would have never happened unless they had wandered.
I recently read this beautiful poem by Tiffany Aurora that illustrates this so perfectly:
Perhaps.
You do not,
need to wander
aimlessly
in order to be found--
&
it is just that
you have not yet made
what you hold
in your hands
into a true home.
May you embrace all your wandering and learn to love it. May you also realize that in all your wandering, you were carrying your true home with you the whole time, and further... that God was in it all along.
Rev. Dr. Leon Bloder is the Lead Pastor of Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX. Leon is married to Merideth, and has three awesome boys ranging in age from 8 to 24.
