Where He Leads Me...

"Where He leads me I will follow, what He feeds me I will swallow."  Gulp!  This is amusingly said to be a missionary motto.  When a person goes outside their comfort zone to another culture it can be tough and he or she will really have to do and eat many things they may be very unaccustomed to doing while growing up in their own culture of origin.  Some of the new life, fun, and some of it, not so fun; a whole new educational facet of life overwhelmingly asked of you. 

We can relate this to life in general.  When the good times roll we don't have to stretch ourselves too much and maybe don't turn to God so much to thank Him or to get His help. We figure we can pretty much manage life on our own strength.   However when the tough times come:  some loved one unexpectedly passes away or is incapacitated; or the breadwinner of the family loses his or her job; or for what ever reason we suddenly really don't want to follow and swallow.

I'm not looking down on people's traumatic troubles nor minimizing them; I've had some of my own in life.  Will we be like Job and still not curse God when we lose our family, wealth and/or health in one swift sweep? Our comfort comes from "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me..." (Psalm 23:4).  To know and realize that God is with us and walking through the storms of life with us, is a comfort we can barely grasp in the darkest hours.  Yet He is with us!

Job also asks, "Should we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?"  "In all this Job  did not sin in what he said."  (Job 2:19).  It is indeed difficult to "swallow" the bad.  We ask many "why's?" of God.  We want to follow Him until He asks us to trust Him and to "swallow" the bad things.  Let us realize now, before those bad times come upon us, let us know these things in our mind so that we will have some preparation of mind and heart to help us in our time of need.

I like the Footprints poem in which the author (Margaret Fishback Powers) sees, at first, two sets of footprints in the sand:  one is hers and the other is Jesus', but during her times of distress and agony, she looks and sees only one set.  She feels hurt and questions God asking why He forsook her.  He answers, "Those were the times I carried you."  Isn't that precious?  Our God is mighty and He cares for us! 

So yes, our God and loving Heavenly Father may well ask us to follow Him and to swallow what we would rather not, yet when we recall that "Every good and perfect gift is from above,  coming down from the Father above..." (James 1:17) we have to meekly accept that this is good for us.  At the time it certainly does not feel good at all, but yes, God does have purpose for our trials and suffering even if, like in Job's case, he had to learn that God is God.  He had to learn not to fear the disasters and troubles of life that could come upon him and his children.  He had to learn to trust God.

Will we still trust Him, despite the problems?  Will we still trust Him even if He gives us no answer to the 'why's'?   Let us learn to trust Him, follow Him wherever He may guide us and through whatever hurdles of life come upon us.  He is with us wherever we are (Psalm 139:8)....

Follow and swallow...and trust.

                                                                ~ERC  2016~