Getting to know someone more or being in some new situation that begins to challenge or change the way I’ve lived, I find that my tendency is to rely on my own wisdom and experience what to do next. There’s nothing uncommon about that among most of us. However, it’s more often than not that I rush with a lead foot into conclusions that I act on that lead me into further conclusions. This creates in me more confusion the farther I go. Something just doesn’t feel right all of a sudden. I discover not only my insecurity at this point, but how rarely I seek to be led in these situations. I try to control the matter by asking the wrong questions that often start with “What should I…?. My questions come more from others that I’ve seen in similar situations, grown up hearing, or just from nervous habit. I realize that I really am not even asking, but making judgements wrapped in a question.

The force by which I live or the momentum that is carrying me goes against the often quoted Psalm 46:10 “Be stilll and know that I am God.” Only in the stillness will I discover the whisper leading me with a new question or the same question reworded so that the answer is discovered.

Then comes the question that even grown successful men often ask “How do I do that?”

Psalm 23 addresses this so simply that though many of us have it memorized, we rarely think of it when a challenge or change comes.

He leads me there to reveal that there is His home, deep within me. I learn to turn within as I’m led now more than I ever knew that the Holy Spirit was willing to lead. Matthew 26:41

Oh the wonder and beauty of intimacy as work in progress! Psalm 25:14