Wherever You Go

      Somebody said one of my favorite sayings to me yesterday; 'life is what happens when you've made other plans".  There are days like that - sometimes it seems like there are weeks, months, or even years like that.  Just when I think I have my life organized and made up my mind about what comes next, life happens and there is a crook in the road I hadn't seen before.  No matter what my plans were, I have to deal with what is now ahead of me.  Sometimes they are small dips or bumps in the road, a turn in a completely new direction, or even a hole so big I can't see my way around or out of it.

      Those kind of things happen to us all.  But right now, there is a collective climate of uneasiness because of the economy and the world situation.  It makes it that much harder to make decisions and choices when we feel like we have no real control. That's when I wish I was like this friend of mine.

      She is one of those people that seems to walk with a sureness that I wish I had.  When she has a decision to make, she prays and sooner or later, feels that she has gotten an answer that allows her to say, "this is the direction God wants me to go".  With confidence, she then sets off in that direction.

      I wish God talked to me.  Oh, don't get me wrong.  I'm sure God has a lot to say to me that I haven't slowed down to listen to.  But when I have a big decision to make, I don't seem to get the kind of clear cut holy arrow pointing in the direction I need to go that my friend does.  I pray.  I try to listen.  I spend time with valued friends talking about the options, listening to advice, laying out the pros and cons, but it still comes down to my making a decision and praying it is the right one. I don't hear a voice saying,"Go here" but I do step off the curb with a promise.  Whatever way I have chosen to go, I know that God goes with me.

      In the end, that is the most important thing for any of us to know.  

      Many people in their weddings use the words of Ruth to Naomi, "Wherever you go, I will go..."  They are beautiful words of promise from one woman to another.  But the words of promise that I invite you to cling to come from Jesus.  Here and there throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus promises to be with us.  "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them."  (Matthew 7:20)  And again at the close of the Gospel, "lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (28:20).

      Whether it is good news, something we've been waiting for a long time or bad news, something seemingly impossible to face, God is with us.  

      Like the poster on my eighth grade English teacher's wall of the road that diverges in the wood, life sometimes presents us with decisions to make.  Which path will we choose?  Unlike the poster, it isn't always clear that one path looks wide and sunny and one path less traveled.  Unlike the poem, the choice isn't "do I go the right way" but instead, the struggle is figuring out which way is the right way.  And some days, things happen that change the rest of our lives without any decision on our part.

      The promise is that God goes with us no matter which path we take.  When we pray about decisions , we may not get a clear answer the way my friend does, but we can hear again that there is no where we can go that is too far for God.  Read Psalm 139: 1-10