Your Life as a River Pt. 2 of 5

Direction is so much more important than speed. Many are going nowhere fast.

The Mississippi River flows to the Gulf of Mexico, carrying with it all the snow melt, rain, and property erosion of many different states. In fact, Iowa farmers have been sued due to the nutrient runoff that is carried downstream in the river. It never comes back or reverses it's course.

Rivers have a set direction that do not change. Once the course is set, so the water and everything in, on, and with it, goes.

Our lives are headed somewhere, too. The question is - have we set the direction for the outcome we want?

I can recall many specific 'crossroads' in my life. Some bigger, others smaller. Some due to natural life passages and others that were unexpected. Each time, a choice laid before me where I clearly knew what I decided would set a direction for my life. With each of these decisions came the all-important process of soul searching and 'owning' my life through the choices I would make. 

Setting this direction built within me the determination on who I was going to be, what's most important to me, and where I was heading in life. It provided vision on a specific outcome that motivated me to persevere when challenging times would arise and provided resilience when I was knocked down.

At high school graduation, I faced a very familiar passage for all young adults... what now? There was no angel appearing to me to tell my God's plan, no miraculous set of events that opened a door, no driving desire of a specific career being my destiny, and not even parental pressure to make a specific choice. The world seemed so vast and open and my life so small. The options and responsibility facing me as a new adult were a bit overwhelming at the time.

I remember praying, writing out pro's and con's lists, talking with people, and still not feeling a whole lot of direction coming to me. Over and over again. 

Eventually it hit me, I can choose. With what I have, who I am, and where I want my life to go - what do you want to do next, Becky? Suddenly it was clear. No, the angels weren't singing, and the stars didn't align pointing the direction out. The process had done its work on the inside and I knew what direction I wanted to go. And in the last 25 years, every crossroad has further processed that direction and vision for my life. 

One thing I've found, is that the process works best when you ask the right questions in the right order. Here's what helps me when setting direction:

1) Who am I?" 
2) What's most important to me?
3) How do I want to live?
3) What do I want to do?
 
Living your best life includes setting a direction by identifying the crossroads and owning your choices in life. As you embrace the process, surely you will find that there is a rhythm in your soul and you can live in sync with the cadence it sets. All that's left is cooperating with the Source of Life who unfolds his amazing wonders in our lives along the way.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. Ephesians 3:20