He Will Direct Our Steps

After a half-day hike around the entire tiny island of Falalop, Ulithi, the five of us girls were pretty exhausted, over-heated, and thirsty.  We found a little shade on the edge of the beach and sat down to rest, but our eyes couldn’t get enough of the incredible blue waters, sunny skies, and white sand.

We noticed a few boys, around 10-12 years old, watching us from up the hill under some coconut trees.  They soon came down to test out their English skills with the foreigners.  “Coconuts?  You like?”  With our grateful consent, the boys, dressed in their native thus, eagerly scrambled up trees to drop coconuts, and used their knives and machetes to carve drinking holes in them.  When we were finished drinking, they chopped them open so we could eat the white goodness inside.  We chatted with them, asking their names and grades in school.  After they were satisfied that we’d been refreshed, they excused themselves, and made their way back up the hill.

That’s when we heard the singing, over the sound of ocean waves gently rolling in.  Some were familiar hymns in an unfamiliar language, but one was in English:

“I have decided to follow Jesus…no turning back, no turning back…

Though no one join me, still I will follow…no turning back, no turning back…

The world behind me, the cross before me…no turning back, no turning back….”

As I replay this scene in my mind of last Easter during our spring break trip, it makes me pause.  I need to take a break from all my thinking and wondering and worrying.  I have decided to follow Jesus, and I’m not turning back.  Whether He takes me to an island or an office, or even a cross, He is fully capable of planning my life.  I’ve seen Him do it, and I know He’ll do it again.

“Christ in His life on earth made no plans for Himself. He accepted God's plans for Him, and day by day the Father unfolded His plans. So should we depend upon God, that our lives may be the simple outworking of His will. As we commit our ways to Him, He will direct our steps.” – Ministry of Healing, p. 478