God Is My Rudder (And I Didn't Even Know It!)

Tillerless Rudder by hinnavaru (2007) via Flickr. All rights reserved.

Have you ever looked back at your life and realized that God was guiding you along His path without your knowledge? Yes, I know that God is always with us and guiding our steps but I guess I thought I would know when He was guiding me. Evidently I'm either unobservant or clueless (or both!) because I usually only see His guiding hand in hindsight.

You see, I started a new job in January as my parish's Coordinator of Children's Catechesis. (Yay me!) It's my first full-time paying gig in ministry so I was a little concerned that I might be in over my head. But, as I've eased into my new role, I've started to build up some confidence and realize that, while I am in deep, I'm not in over my head.

The weird thing is that, while my formal education didn't really prepare me for my current position, God did. And He was pretty sneaky about it too! Without boring you with details from my resumé, let's just say that over the past 15 years God has been leading me down paths that have slowly given me the skills I need to do my job well. First, He led me to greater knowledge of my faith through various parish Bible studies. Then He led me to direct our parish's Vacation Bible School as a volunteer for many years. Then He put me in the path to learn more about teaching by becoming a preschool teacher. Not long after that, I started speaking and writing about matters of spirituality and, next thing you know, here I am, in charge of the education of several hundred little souls. Scary, isn't it?

It was only recently that I reflected on how my life has prepared me for my new gig. As I started seeing how the pieces fit together so neatly, I began to feel overwhelmed with gratitude and awe at God's generosity. He has a plan for me; a plan to bring others to Him. Me. Little Laura down in Texas. God chose me. Wow.

But the thing is, God didn't just choose me. He chooses ALL of us. Of course, He doesn't lead us all down the same path. That would be boring. And weird. Really weird. No. He has a different plan for each of us if we're willing to be open to Him.

For years, I didn't know what I wanted to be "when I grew up." Never mind the fact that I was married and the mother of three children. I still felt like there was something else I was called to do but I couldn't see what it was. But God gave me just enough light for my path so that I could see the next step. And slowly, I next-stepped my way to where I am now. Who knows if this is the end of God's path for me? But it's where He wants me right now. And that's enough for me.