It’s so easy to plan the journey until you have to leave. Leading You

In my musical “El Camino,” we meet a young women named Penny who should be excited and optimistic about her future. Instead, she feels anxious and apprehensive and, most of all, alone.

We may joke about young people in this situation as being “failures to launch.” But most of us can recall times at that age when we wondered if we really were up to the challenge of making our way in the world. Although I had finished three years of seminary training and a year of internship, I recall feeling totally unprepared when I began leading my first congregation. What business did a 26 year old have preaching to people two or three times my age?

Penny is blessed on her Camino by a middle-aged woman named Selah. Selah does not coddle or comfort Penny’s fears. She does something greater-she believes in her. Selah has no problem making Penny get up and get on the road despite her protests. And Selah pushes the pace each day, challenging Penny to realize that “you were more than you had dreamed.” Complaining to Selah, Penny accuses her of “leaving her.” Penny replies, “ I was not leaving you, I was leading you.”

So often when we think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, we think of him protecting us, feeding us and bringing us comfort. We forget that Psalm 23 also says “He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley…” Sometime following the Good Shepherd will take us where we must go, not always where we want to go. If we choose to follow Jesus, he will train us to go faster, further and farther than we ever imagined. Those who believe in him will discover he believes in us.

Pastor Andy