{"id":128,"date":"2015-11-24T15:18:21","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?p=128"},"modified":"2017-02-11T21:28:49","modified_gmt":"2017-02-11T21:28:49","slug":"the-beauty-of-following-gods-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2015\/11\/the-beauty-of-following-gods-lead.html","title":{"rendered":"The Beauty of Following God\u2019s Lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OLYMPUS<\/a><\/p>\n

My husband and I recently started taking ballroom dancing classes.\u00a0 Ballroom dancing isn\u2019t like the modern dancing that you might do at a club or a wedding.\u00a0 It is very structured.\u00a0 There are rules, specific steps, and techniques.\u00a0 And<\/em> there is a leader.\u00a0 One person, typically the man, leads.\u00a0 When a song is played, he decides the type of dance the couple will do, the speed of their steps, when the lady will turn, etc.\u00a0 And the woman follows.\u00a0 I have to admit, the following part is hard for me!\u00a0 But those are the rules.<\/p>\n

Sometimes when my husband and I practice, in order to be a better follower, I close my eyes.\u00a0 Without distractions, I more easily can sense where he is moving me.\u00a0\u00a0 Closing my eyes allows me to follow blindly, as it were.<\/p>\n

Our walk with God is a lot like ballroom dancing.\u00a0 We have to learn to follow.\u00a0 And sometimes we have to follow blindly.\u00a0 At times, God will ask us to do something that doesn\u2019t make logical sense.\u00a0 However, if we simply follow His lead, He will do amazing things in our lives.<\/p>\n

For instance, a number of years ago, I was living in the Middle East.\u00a0 I was writing, taking care of my daughter, and trying to adjust to life in a world that is very different from ours in the U.S.\u00a0 One day, out of the blue, my daughter\u2019s teacher asked me if I would apply to be the school librarian.\u00a0 On the face of it, her request made no sense.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have a degree in library science, and I didn\u2019t have a background in early childhood education.\u00a0 I simply had a love of books.<\/p>\n

However, by that time in my life, I\u2019d learned that when God opens a door, it is a good idea to go through it.\u00a0 So I applied and got the position.\u00a0 It was one of the best jobs that I ever had.\u00a0 For 9 months, I was a cheerleader for children\u2019s literature.\u00a0 I worked hard to get everyone in the school as excited about books as I was.\u00a0 And some of the kids actually got excited too.\u00a0 By the middle of the year, one of the mothers told me, \u201cMy son never was interested in reading, but thanks to your library classes, he has been begging me for everything written by Roald Dahl.\u201d\u00a0 In the end, an opportunity that made zero sense to me turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had countless situations like that.\u00a0 Many times my life has taken an unpredictable course, and I\u2019ve had to follow God\u2019s lead blindly.\u00a0 On each occasion, I\u2019ve scratched my head and thought, \u201cWhy on earth am I here?\u201d\u00a0 But when I look back, I can see how all those experiences fit together.\u00a0 And following God\u2019s lead always has worked for my benefit.<\/p>\n

We all struggle when it comes to following.\u00a0 We live in a society that glorifies leaders and perceives following as weakness.\u00a0 Our teachers rate our kids on whether they show \u201cleadership skills\u201d in school.\u00a0 Our political leaders garner all the media\u2019s attention (even though there are smarter folks out there who we really should be listening to).\u00a0 And if you\u2019ve ever attended a business meeting, you know that the leaders (managers) suck up all the air in the room.\u00a0 We all aspire to be leaders, and no one is comfortable following.\u00a0 But in our relationship with God, the ability to follow is the name of the game.<\/p>\n

Following God involves letting go of the delusion that we know what is best.\u00a0 God knows better than we do how to mold our characters.\u00a0 As a result, sometimes God will present us with opportunities that we aren\u2019t interested in.\u00a0\u00a0 However, they may be just what we need in order to mature.\u00a0 And God may close doors because He knows those paths won\u2019t benefit us.<\/p>\n

Following God\u2019s lead also requires trust.\u00a0 When we follow God, we have to trust that He can use our most challenging problems for our benefit.\u00a0 For example, during the recession, I was laid off from my job.\u00a0 To be honest, I should have left the job a year before.\u00a0 God had been prompting me to use my talents elsewhere, but I was unwilling to follow His lead.\u00a0 I was too scared to give up the security of the position.\u00a0 Moreover, I didn\u2019t want to leave my colleagues, whom I really cared about.\u00a0 So at the end of the day, the decision was made for me.\u00a0 It was a very difficult experience.\u00a0 However, when I look back, I can see that God ultimately used the experience to help me.\u00a0 When I lost my job, I became more humble.\u00a0 I also learned that I had more courage than I ever realized.\u00a0 And ultimately, new and better opportunities came my way.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t easy to follow God.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t easy to trust that He will take care of us when all the \u201cfacts\u201d indicate otherwise.\u00a0 But when we follow God\u2019s lead, and when we do so with a joyful heart, amazing things can happen.\u00a0 Our life will go on a path that we never could have predicted.\u00a0 And it will be a far more interesting, rich and blessed life than we ever could have created on our own.<\/p>\n

(Photo Courtesy of Pexels)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My husband and I recently started taking ballroom dancing classes.\u00a0 Ballroom dancing isn\u2019t like the modern dancing that you might do at a club or a wedding.\u00a0 It is very structured.\u00a0 There are rules, specific steps, and techniques.\u00a0 And there is a leader.\u00a0 One person, typically the man, leads.\u00a0 When a song is played, he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Beauty of Following God\u2019s Lead - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Beauty of Following God\u2019s Lead - 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