Paddling Against The Current

"When I am afraid, I put my trust in you."

~Psalm 56:3

For a good part of my life I believed that I was in charge of my own destiny. It was my decisions that would ultimately decide my fate. I believed the harder I worked the more I'd get ahead. 

As Americans we're raised to be very independent. We believe in the American dream. That anything is possible for any individual with enough imagination, enough bravery, and enough elbow grease. That we're only limited by ourselves. And we work hard. And we fight hard. And we find ourselves always paddling against the current. Trying to get where it is we want to go.

And by the time we get to where we want to go, if we get to where we want to go . . . we're too tired to enjoy it. 

It's not an easy thing to admit you've been doing it wrong for decades. But I realized at some point that I was doing it wrong. The reason I was always paddling against a current was because I'd set the course. I'd set the course, and then I jumped in the canoe and proceeded to spend a good part of my life trying to get to the destination I'd selected.  

What I should have done a long time ago was to figure out what God's plan was for me. Let God decide the course of my life. It took me fifty years to figure that out, but it is never too late.

When we let God decide the destination, we don't have to paddle so hard. In fact, we don't have to paddle at all. Instead of thinking of yourself in a canoe, imagine instead your a leaf floating down a creek. There will be difficulties and losses along the way--no life is without pain. But you are never alone when God has planned your journey.

Trust that God will take you where He wants you to go, and you may be surprised where you wind up.

~Todd E. Creason