"It's all about God"

A friend of mine was speaking about an upcoming career change in her life. She does not know where the road is leading her, but she knows that the time has come to move on from her current position. While she has some ideas of what she would like to do next, she is open to wherever God is leading her to serve. As she put it, "It's all about God!"

God often invites us to travel down paths we had not considered. A common job interview question is "Where do you see yourself in five years?" I have always hated that question because my honest answer is "I have no idea." My five year plans have never worked out quite the way I expected. As a mother, I have often found that my one-day plans often don't work out the way I thought they would! Planning five years ahead is simply not possible.

Even though life hasn't played out quite the way I thought it would when I was young, I have come to see God's plan for my life unfold itself. This is one of those things you can generally only appreciate in retrospect. You make a decision at one stage of your life that greatly impacts a later stage, even if at the time you had no idea it would take you in that direction. You casually meet a person who at a later date will play a major role in your life. A tragedy befalls us in which one can see no good and yet it later bears fruit in a totally unexpected way.

We are always on a journey and that journey may have some detours and some slow-going in spots. Sometimes we may be going the wrong direction and need to make a u-turn. At other times, it may be smooth-sailing. Whatever the current travel conditions, if we trust in God and pray to do His will, we can believe that we are right where we are meant to be and that our journey is leading us to eternal life.

My friend is right, though, that it is "all about God." Sometimes we get so wrapped up in ourselves. We have all of our plans and those plans may be good, but if they are not what God wants for us, we will not find the peace and happiness we seek. We make goals which focus on the things of this world - money, success, esteem in the eyes of our peers - instead of focusing on the things of the next world. We worry about our "self-fulfillment" instead of realizing that the only way to be truly fulfilled is by being full of God's love and sharing it with others. God is always calling us to listen closely to discover where He wants us to be and who He wants us to serve.

Sometimes it can be hard to discern the correct path to take. There have been many times in my life I have wished for some direct communication - letter, phone call, email, burning bush (I'm really not picky!) but all I have heard is silence. God works in His own time and His own way. Eventually, with enough prayer, the answers reveal themselves. God speaks through other people and circumstances as well as in the quiet of our hearts. He leads us and then an opportunity presents itself. Mother Teresa once said, "God doesn't call us to be successful, He calls us to be faithful." If we do what we truly believe God is calling us to do, then that is all we can do. Even if the results here and now seem minimal, we are playing our part in God's plan. After all, it's not about us at all. It is all about God.