Guardrails

You may or may not have noticed how often there are guardrails on the roads you travel. They appear in areas of increased risk where running off the road would bring potentially fatal damage. These structures should give us something to bounce off of to prevent us from doing too much damage to ourselves.

An author I recently read wrote about the guiding principles for her life and how they served that same function. These are the values that shape the decisions she makes and help to keep her on the best path as she pursues her life vision. It’s vital to know our own guiding principles or we run the risk of causing damage to ourselves and the people we care about.

What principles do you hold tightly to? How do these shape the way you think, speak, and act? How are they protecting you and keeping you focused in the best possible direction?

Creating the mental, emotional, and spiritual space to clearly define these principles is helpful for us to stay on the path we want to live on.

Currently on Repeat

In the past few weeks I have found myself meditating on the phrase, "Guide me, O great Jehovah." It keeps showing up in my journaling, my prayers and in my meditative thoughts. I shared this with my wife this weekend and she quickly identified it as my present liturgy. It's the powerfully repetitive phrase I need to continue to focus on as God guides me through what it means. There is tremendous impact in regular rhythm of pondering these five simple words.

I am still sorting out where that guidance will take me, but I can think of several current pressing areas I need that wisdom from Jehovah:

My family's future
The conversations I have with people
My daily schedule
Meetings I participate in
Preparation of messages, teaching, and ministry direction
To interact with people my life intersects with
My thinking and how my mind shapes all I say and do

I don't believe this is supposed to be a short-term practice, but something I am called to slowly wade through in the days ahead. This spiritual mantra can be affirming even as it challenges me to look at my life with new vision and obedient perspective.

Open & Shut

I am asked to pray for people quite often as they make decisions for their future. Sometimes it is for a new job opportunity, a financial increase, or wisdom for something even bigger in their lives. Most of the prayers are focused on asking God to open a door so that we know which direction to move forward. We get excited thinking about the potential of these open doors and new opportunities.

Sometimes God's answer is not to open something else up to us, but to close doors we shouldn't go through. It may be a job opportunity we shouldn't strive for, a relationship we should no longer engage in, or a financial opportunity we should avoid. In our stubbornness we will often make the error of shaking the doorknob on that closed off path. We bang incessantly on the entryway to something because we have convinced ourselves it is the best thing for us. 

The closed door may provide the very solution and miracle God has been showing us as we prayed. It is His way of narrowing the pathway He is calling us to travel and leading us to trust in His providential guidance.