Shaper of our Journey

While we are living our lives, we make decisions, have jobs, make friends, travel, and do all sorts of activities, and think we are directing our lives. We don’t realize how God is shaping us until we look back. “God shapes us on our journey,” Daniel Horan once said.

God uses all we do to make us into the persons we are. He puts us in the family we have, with all its problems and shortcomings. Our jobs and college degrees influence our lives. All our decisions and people we have known have made us who we are. Even the mistakes and hardships are part of us and God uses all of these, shaping who we become. 

While we are living day to day, we don’t think about God molding us into the unique persons we are. But when we look back, we can see how it all fits together, the good and the bad, the ups and the downs.  Sometimes we have to change our paths due to circumstances we did not anticipate.

Often, we observe this in other’s lives, like Stephen Hawking who became a famous physicist in spite of having Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) from his youth. Instead of being devastated by this crippling disease, he used his genius to make great contributions in the field of science.

Or Michael J. Fox, a famous movie star who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He won numerous awards for his acting roles, but finally had to retire. He became an advocate to find a cure for his disease. He used his fame to encourage others suffering from Parkinson’s.

 When we are struck with obstacles, God finds ways to enable us to keep living and contributing, maybe not in the way we planned but in the way God planned.