Do you ever have the feeling that you are at a crossroads in your life? It may be that the deep inside of you a tempest of doubt is raging. Maybe you feel drained of passion or hope. Maybe you feel that you have completely botched your life, and you want to consign the last several years of your life to a dustbin somewhere. Even if you can't identify the cause, you recognize the fact that you are facing a turning point.
At a fork in the road, where the destination of either path is unknown, it is often easy to allow fear to paralyze you. What if you make the wrong choice? What if the path your chose is too hard? What if? What if? What if? is always the refrain.
The message of the gospel strips fear of its power. Fear preys on your natural inclinations; it manipulates your inherent paranoia. Fear is a lie sculpted in barbwire. It snags you deep in the soul, and embeds itself deep. Fear manifests itself in various ways in different people. Most of us fear something, but the gospel uproots all lies.
This uprooting doesn't always happen overnight. As we grow and mature, the Spirit enables us to see more place we need to apply the gospel in our lives. He continually moves us to not only persevere in the faith, but to advance in it. As the Spirit brings about growth in us, he reveals to us areas that are still not under Christ's lordship.
When we find ourselves at a crossroads in our life, it is wise to ask if this is the Spirit's way of bringing us more fully under the lordship of Christ. The crossroads should be a place of intense prayer and contemplation, they should never be a place of fear.
The gospel teaches us that we are always accepted before God the Father, through Christ Jesus the Son, as demonstrated by the Spirit's presence in our life. God loves us: not for what we can do for him (he doesn't need anyone or anything), not because of what we do for him, but simply because that is who God is. If we take the wrong turn, whether in misguided faith or in disobedience, God will correct our path. We are his because he is pleased to delight in us. With this in mind, let us face the crossroads of our life with confidence in God's undeniable love and step out in faith.
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