The Path Principle

At the end of last year I randomly download a sermon series called Destinations by Andy Stanly. I think the Lord speaks to me through that man and his sermons more than anyone else I've ever heard speak. It was exactly what I needed to hear and still need to be reminded of as I venture though the season of life I'm in. I just recently listened to it again and feel like blogging about the things that I learned in this four part sermon series that has changed the way I look at my life.

PART ONE: THE PATH PRINCIPLE 

The direction of the road you are on will lead you to your destination.

Well, that's a no brainer. If you are going in the direction to point A, that route isn't going to take to point B. Pretty simple right?

This is what Andy calls the principle of the path: Your direction determines your destination.

The same "simple" idea applies to all our lives. Our direction in life determines our destination in life. Andy points out that we think that our intention, hopes, dreams, prayers, belief will at some stage trump our direction….....but guess what?! They don’t!

This principle of path applies to every area of our life: dating, marriage, profession, health, finances and so forth.

Think about your life. Think about the times that you've ended up at a destination where you did not want to be. Now, think about how you ended up there? When I stop to think about that I come up seeing the huge discontent between where I wanted to end up and path that I chose to take.

In his sermon Andy takes us through Proverbs 7 to illustrate this point. I'll let you read the whole thing yourself but in summary it's about how Saul watches a young man...

 
"He was walking down the street near the corner on the road leading to her house."

The her would be the woman of Adultery. Saul sees this young guy man walking down this path and KNOWS the outcome of his journey. He's walking down THAT path. THAT path will lead to the woman's house and lead to an end result that the young man may have not been intending.

Andy points out that so many times we are focused on what we are doing but God is focused on where we are heading. It is not just events that we encounter in life, they are paths. Just like this young man and his interaction with the woman of adultery....it was not just a moment of pleasure with her. It was a path that he was now on towards destruction.

 ^"Her house is on the road to death, the road that leads down to the grave."

But that's not our intention! It's not our intention to head towards destruction. It's not our intention to end up in THAT destination. And our culture tells us that as long as our intentions are good it doesn't matter the path we take. FALSE! At the end of the day our path TRUMPS our intentions every time.

I loved the examples that Andy gave for this

  "I wanna end up with great Christian guy – so I’m gonna go out with anyone who asks me if he’s cute. And that will lead me to that destination?!"

"I wanna lose weight and be thin so supersize that….i wanna be close to God so I get up every morning and read the newspaper"

"When I get married I wanna have an incredible sex life so I’m gonna practice with everyone that I date because the best way to insure great sex in marriage is to sleep with everyone along the way. You will not find someone in their 50s who says that it is what results in great marriage and great sex life…."

"Are the paths you are on gonna get you to wear you wanna be?!"

This was a haunting question for me when I first heard this sermon.

Because I knew the answer was no. I knew I was flirting with paths that would not take me to where I really ultimately want to end up and as I listened to this message it scared me. I didn't want to be on these paths anymore. I didn't understand why I'd become so caught up in them until Andy said this.....

"The reason we are so enamored with the wrong path is because there is something or someone on that path that has such a strong emotional appeal that we get so fixated on the immediate that we don’t even think about the ultimate."

YES! That has happened to me so many times! I feel like that could have actually been one of the themes of 2011 for me. I am a strong emotional person by nature. I will be the first to admit that I'm much more ruled by my emotions than logic. So, this made so much sense to me that the pull of these paths is that they are immediately filling an emotional need in me. That the appeal of that is so strong that I forget about the big picture and the bigger story.

And as I reflect on my life and the moments where I ended up in a "how the crap did I get here moment"......this principle rings true.

You start on a path and maybe you know it's not the wisest thing but really who is going to harm?

You are stronger than that, right?!

 "I just drank a little bit too much that night, it's not that big of a deal. So, I got wasted the next weekend. It was a one time deal."

"So, it was late at night and we were making out on the couch with the lights off. Yah probably not the wisest but I would never let myself get out of hand."

"Ok, so I went on a little shopping spree and charge it. No big deal, I'll pay it off next month."
"It was just lunch with a coworker, no big deal. Yah, he's married and yah he's joked that he'd leave his wife for a woman like me. That doesn't mean anything"

"I was just so stressed out, I just needed to relax so I tried it. It's not like I'm gonna use all the time"

Do you see yourself in any of those statements? Have you ever been in a similar situation? Have you ever had someone in life warn you? And you blew it off cause you knew you were cooler or smarter or stronger than that?

I have and it's those initial situations that slowly and ultimately led me to my "how did I get here" moments. Because those initial thoughts, initial actions, those initial "it's not that big of deal" moments are what started me down the direction of a path that led me to a destination that I did not want to be at.

Direction determines destination

I wish I had heard this sermon years ago. But thankful I heard it when I did.

So what about you? What path are you on? Where is it taking you?

What direction are you going in? Morally? Financially? Relationships?

These questions have now become ones that I ask myself on a regular basis

because sometimes it's time to start thinking about making some changes in my course directions to reach the destination where my hopes and my dreams lie.

 COMING SOON

Part Two: Looking Ahead

"

Three years later....

Three years ago today I arrived in Colorado Springs to start life after college.

I can't believe it's already been three years but at the same time it's felt like forever. I had no idea the roller coaster the next three years would be.

And I could never have even guessed three years ago I'd be at the place I am today.Standing on the edge of embarking on a whole new type of journey.

But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Let me catch you up on the last couple of months of my life and what the journey of pursuing international ministry with Young Life has been!

In January I fell more in love with the organization that I work for. I spent a week in Florida with 4,000 of my Young Life family as we celebrated what the Lord has been doing through this ministry over the past four years. It was absolutely amazing to see what Young Life is doing worldwide and to hear the stories of how God is using this ministry to reach people.

I also got the opportunity to connect with Craig (from Young Life Northern Ireland) and it was incredibly to watch him walk into our opening ceremonies carrying the Northern Ireland flag, representing a country that holds so much of my heart! I walked away from this conference overwhelmed that God has blessed me with working for an organization like this. An organization that I would be proud to be with for the rest of my life.

At the end of February I had finished all the application requirements (paperwork, references, interviews) but one.

Attendance at the IIW 2012

(International Information Weekend)

It was an incredible weekend to get away from my busy life and be surrounded by others who are the journey of discovering if international ministry is what God has for us. It was a good time for me of God confirming to me that my desire is to go back overseas and that Young Life's philosophyy of ministry fits me exactly.

I also got the chance to connect with some more of the international team that I'd be working with when/if this adventure continues. About a week after I got back I had my first phone conversation with Chad, who overseas the placement process. That conversation felt more like an encouragement/let me speak truth into your life session than another interview! I was really impressed with him and just how genuinely he wants to see me where God intends me to be. But, first before I can officially be "accepted" as international staff and start the placement process I had to go through a conference call to go through my "Worcester Test".

The "Worcester Test" is part of application process and is this intensive personality/skills/gifting assessment.

I received 17 pages of results that analyzed who I am as a person. Overwhelming? Yes. But that's why you have a conference call with the psychologist who designed the test, Dr. Worcester, and Craig. The purpose of this was for Dr. Worcester to go through and explain the results and answer any questions or disagreements I had. It is the weirdest thing to have someone you don't know tell you who you are and nail it on the head. It was an encouraging conversation to learn more about how who I am affects the way I do ministry and how I need to be aware of how it affects other who aren't like me. (WHAT?! everything isn't like me?!)

Dr. Worcester told me that based on my personality and giftings that I am perfect Young Life field staff material and will do really well in an international environment. He said that I am confident, gifted and competent woman who has the complete social/leadership package. That I naturally lead others and have the natural ability to lead leader. That I should pursue eventually being an area director where that ability will have the opportunity to flourish. That Colorado Springs is definitely too small for me and I have what it takes to be stable in long term ministry. I was speechless. I could not have received a higher compliment. It was a moment of God confirming the call on my life, who He created me to be and what I was made to do.

And it SCARED ME!  

Can I really be this person that they see? Am I really that person?!

A week later I had another conversation with Chad. Before our chat I assumed this was going to be the "we want you" chat and let's start discussing things that would play a part in placing you. Man, little did I know I was about to get blown away.

Now, I'm not gonna lie I started getting nervous at this step in the process! I had no idea where they were thinking about placing me or what my options were going to look like! But I just kept praying that God would help me trust Him in this and that He would be leading and guiding Chad in that for me.

So, Chad did tell me that they wanted me and proceed to discuss how normally the placement process looks from here. That typically they will choose three locations that they believe would be a good fit for me to pray and consider. I already knew and expected this. But I didn't except what was to come out of his mouth next....

"But if it's okay with you we want to only pursue Northern Ireland as your placement at this time"

I was speechless and my eyes started tearing up.

This is my story.

God calls a 17 year old girl to a small little country called Northern Ireland. Girl goes for three years. Girl leaves to finish school with every intent on returning after. Girl goes back to complete summer internship for her degree. It's different and things are changing and she's not sure if this is where she's suppose to be anymore. Girl meets boy at the end of summer and strongly feels that God is leading her into that relationship. Girl knows dating this boy means that she's acknowledging that God may have something else beside Northern Ireland for her future. Girl falls completely in love with boy. Girl graduates college and moves to Colorado Springs to be near boy and is believes they will get married. Girl gets job at Young Life, an organization she has never really heard of before. Same week girls starts job, girl and boy start talking about breaking up. Girl and boy break up. Girl is then thrown in two years of heartache, pain, bad decisions, good decisions, growth, loneliness and whatever else you can think of. Girl feels like God has asked her in that season to learn to live in each day and not worry about the next or her future, so she does for two years. Girl then goes to Africa for missions trip. Girl realizes how much she misses international ministry and feels like God is giving her permission to dream again. Girl comes home and starts pursing Young Life International Staff.............and you can read here about that........Young Life international decides that they want to send her to.....

Northern Ireland

Wow....what example of faithfulness to the calling of a 17 year old girl.

Three years later I understand.

I understand I had to meet Stephen and let go of Northern Ireland to move to Colorado. So that I would be connected with and organization that would fit me best, Young Life. But also to gain more life experience, to learn and understand love, grace and forgiveness in ways I never had before so that I'd be better equipped to love and minister to people. And then for me just be sent back to the country that captured my heart at 17.

Now, this placement isn't final yet. I'm headed over to visit Young Life Northern Ireland early September.If that trip goes well and both sides feel that it's a good fit...than placement will be final.

 Till then.....hopefully I'll do a bit better job sharing my thoughts in this journey and what the Lord is doing in me.

But today, even though the memory of moving here with the man who captured my heart leaves me with a twinge of sadness at those lost dreams, I'll relish in thankfulness for the faithfulness of the Lord to me in these past three years.

And who knows.....maybe there is a man with an accent waiting on the other side of the pond for me!!!

(HECK YES!)