I wonder if the road to becoming is paved with patience and grace. Are baby steps allowed and even wrong turns? When you walk with a friend on this road, do you let them set the pace or do you pull them along based on what you think is best?
Each question above is one that deserves attention. The road to becoming is never easy. The journey is slow, fast, and everything in between. It looks like the end is in sight until you round the bend and realize nothing looks familiar. Becoming is God’s journey for us as we seek and get to know Him better.
Another birthday and another trip around the sun marks my own passage to becoming. Somedays are a joyful dance leading me straight into God’s embrace. Other days move forward hesitantly as challenges fill my path. The road that was so clear and welcoming the day before now looks cloudy. The pathway widens as my vision takes in the unknown landscape and the rhythmic dance of the day before is anything but that.
God guides our baby steps toward Him and multiplies them until we reach His outstretched arms. Our journey forward makes great headway until it doesn’t. And that’s okay! God is in the business of walking with us and knowing what we need at just the right time. He is not concerned when we face a speed bump because He knows we will make it to the other side.
Remember God cares about you and your situation more than you ever will. He is just that good. And there is no formula to follow to get from here to there–just God. And He is enough.
Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 MSG
We all travel the road to becoming. Some of us arrive at the next stop more quickly, but all of us remain on the path when we invite God to travel with us.
There is no formula to follow to get from here to there–just God! And He is enough. #TellHisStory #linkup Click To Tweet
God takes our hand and gently tugs when we veer off course. Do you recognize that tug when you are traveling along at breakneck speed?
We find a peace that is nothing like we have ever sensed before with each forward movement. Scripture describes it like this:
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7
How do you acquaint yourself with this peace when life is crumbling around you?
God sets our pace on the path we choose. Just as a dance follows a fast, fast, slow pattern so does the trajectory of our lives. It’s reassuring to me that “fast” is not the only choice.
Finally, patience and grace accompany every step we take. There is nothing that says we must learn the ins and outs of life in one easy step. Instead, God provides a safety net to catch us when a wrong turn plunges us off–course. Our fall is always cushioned with God’s grace, love, and strength to get back up and try again.
There is nothing that says we must learn the ins and outs of life in one easy step. #TellHisStory#linkup Click To TweetWhat have you learned on your own road to becoming? Have you experienced God’s peace that transcends all understanding and grace to cushion your fall? Join us in the comments so we can encourage each other.
Blessings,
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the linkup works without a hitch. Some things changed on the back end and hopefully I did it right. Here we go!!!
Good evening, Mary,
I am late to this post. Glad I waited. The road to becoming is front and center as I unravel more of Myself that needs to go. Loved your descriptions and the photos of walking together with a God who is greater and wiser and full of grace. Thank you, Mary, and may He bless the work of your hands this week. Are you still working at the library?
Actually, you were right on time! 😉 I’m so glad you stopped by and God reminded you of His loving presence in your life. Blessings! And yes, I am still working at the library.
Such a nice thought that he cares more about my life than I do!
It is so reassuring, isn’t it? Thank you for joining us at Tell His Story.
I like the thought of our journeys being like a dance with fast and slow steps. laurensparks.net
Fast, fast, slow! God’s dance with us as He leads us along the road to becoming. Thank you for being here.
happy birthday, dear friend. it sounds like a time of reflection and reconsideration and all those good things that are often hard to attain.
you are a blessing in the lives of many. please know that.
your gentle wisdom is a gift.
Thank you for the birthday wishes. I also receive your sweet words of encouragement as the gift they are. God is so good.
“God is in the business of walking with us and knowing what we need at just the right time. He is not concerned when we face a speed bump because He knows we will make it to the other side.” Amen. I’m so glad we can trust Him even when the road is unfamiliar. Blessings to you, dear Mary! xo
Here’s to walking with God and trusting that we will always make it over each speed bump we face. Thank you for being here, Gayl.
Happy Birthday, Mary! It is reassuring that God sees the path before us and that he guides each of our steps even when we feel that we don’t know where we are going. Also that he walks with us and gently guides us back when we take a wrong turn.
I pray you feel God’s presence as you walk your own road to becoming. Thank you for faithfully joining us each week.
Happy Birthday, Mary! Thank you for reminding us that God cares more about us and our situations than we ever will. This truth especially comforts me – “God provides a safety net to catch us when a wrong turn plunges us off–course. Our fall is always cushioned with God’s grace, love, and strength to get back up and try again.” Love and blessings to you!
As I am reading your comment, I realize how much my own words were meant for me. God has a way of providing exactly what we need when we need it. Your comment affirmed how God works for all of us. Love and blessings to you too. Thank you for your sweet presence here.
Another year around the sun. And this is the year become a grandma! How exciting. Belated birthday blessings to you.
It is a very exciting year. Thank you for the birthday wishes.
Thank you so very much for sharing these questions and thoughts today, Mary! My heart has been asking so many questions too, and feeling them from the Lord to me also. I am so grateful that He is so sovereign over this path that feels so disjointed to me sometimes! But He is so gentle to us, and sees it all from such a different perspective, doesn’t He? Blessings and love to you on this new year ahead!
Knowing that God is sovereign over our path to becoming is comforting to me. He is the One that keeps me going. Praying as we both continue to figure out and learn from God how He wants to move us forward.
Happy birthday, Mary! I would like to say that my road to becoming has been paved by patience and grace, but I fear there have been too many times I have been impatient and graceless. Birthdays are a great point in time to assess our journeys. We are not perfect, but thank goodness, God travels with us.
Birthdays are a great time to reassess and reflect on the where and what, but most importantly the who that brought us this far. Praying for you as you continue on your road to becoming.
Oh, yes! I love that God is good with my baby steps and my wrong turns! It brings so much freedom!
And happy birthday!
Thank you for the birthday wishes. Praying you sense God with you as you take your own baby steps toward Him.
Delightful and so well articulated, Mary. Your reflection gives so much encouragement and reminder of what this journey is about and the value of sharing it with Him and perhaps a few others we meet along the way.
Have a blessed day!
Thank you for your kind words. Don’t you just love how God is always present and working in our lives? Blessings to you!
Your words are a gift this morning, Mary. Thank you, and many blessings in the coming year!
Thank you for being a faithful member of this community. Blessings to you too.
Definitely experienced His grace to cushion the falls. Rejecting that cushion can be tempting at times, if fall into condemnation instead of grace. Our pathways are full of twists and turns, yet those curves, like anticipating what might be beyond that curve on that beautiful nature hike, can leave us breathless from His beauty too. Thanks for the reminder He is always with us each step.
I am fascinated with pathways and when writing this post I realized once again that God meets me on those pathways. You always provide a fresh perspective. There are more times I am surprised by what is around the bend than not. Praying you feel God’s loving presence every step of the way.
Mary, this post is such an encouraging one. I am so very grateful that God guides each and every one of our steps, moving us along until we reach His outstretched arms. No journey looks the same and yet He is with us each on our journey with Him. This thought is most precious to me. Blessings as you continue to journey!
I personally cannot get enough of being reminded that God is always with me. The comfort it provides gets me through some rough days. May we feel God in every part of our day. Blessings and hugs!
Belated happy birthday to you! I’m profoundly glad for God’s patience with us as we sometimes run, sometimes stumble along the pathway.
Thank you for the birthday wishes. I am shaking my head in agreement that God is so good to bless us with patience and grace. I pray your road to becoming is a beautiful one marked with many blessings.
This is so good! This is precisely where my thoughts have been living, wondering how I can be so optimistic one day and three days later feeling like I’ve made no progress at all. I hope to get my thoughts on the blog and link up because I’m thinking the more of us who struggle with this, and share it the better.
We’re in this together and God is right by our sides. Life is hard and I know I have made so many wrong turns along the way. Grace is always around the next corner. I am looking forward to reading more of your thoughts. Blessings!
I’m really interested in that thought about traveling the road with others. I’ve mostly chosen to walk solo–or maybe in tandem with my good husband–but I’m finding myself in company more often these days, and it does make a difference in how we travel.
Thanks, Mary, for taking time around your birthday to re-assess the road and to share these thoughts on our process of becoming.
If you asked me I would also say that a big portion of my own road has been alone. Finding community and diving in to do life with them is not always easy for me. I always feel we might be similar in that area.
I love your wisdom and desire to share a piece of your own journey. Blessings and hugs!
Oh, Mary. What a fabulous post. As I read your opening questions, I answered them in my mind. And then I read your definition, and it was spot-on. 🙂
I really liked what you said here: Becoming is God’s journey for us as we seek and get to know Him better. And yes, patience and grace must accompany us on the journey to becoming. Otherwise . . . well, let’s just say I’m not sure I’d make it to the end of the journey.
GREAT post, my friend!
You are a such a dear friend. It always makes me feel good to know you are on this journey with me. I pray your own road to becoming is lined with grace, strength and provision. Love and hugs!
I’m another one who’s REALLY glad “fast” is not the only choice, Mary. So reassuring to know God orders our steps and accompanies us on the path, giving us the peace and grace we need. May your next year be filled with bright blessings!
I have never been one to go fast. I know I am a planner so moving ahead without a plan is not my go to. I am so grateful for God and His grace. I am nothing without Him.