Uncharted Territory

Last week as I was traveling a very familiar road from my home to the airport, things suddenly seemed so unclear and the path seemed so unfamiliar! It was 5 a.m. so very dark, but in the many years I have been driving, I have made this exact trip more times than I can remember. I know the curves and sites along this path very well, yet it seemed as if I had never traveled this path at any point in my life. As I dropped my mom off to return to CA, hugged and said our goodbyes, I couldn’t shake the way I was feeling. Again on the entire trip back home, everything seemed so unfamiliar.

I tried to tell myself that maybe this feeling was because I had just returned from an amazing conference in Florida. Maybe the path I am on is uncertain right now. Maybe I don’t know what my future holds or where I am going. Have you ever felt this way? Maybe it feels this way because I know my path at this point in my life is very different from what anyone in my past would have ever predicted I would ever do. I couldn’t make any sense of my feeling, but this was a feeling I truly have never experienced in my life.

In 2018 I began to have this stirring in my spirit, in the very pit of my stomach that I knew change was coming for me, and even though that felt so uncertain and the path so unclear, this realization last week that I truly felt on an unfamiliar path felt different. You want to know the biggest difference? Last week driving on that dark and unseeingly unfamiliar path, I was not fearful, I was at complete peace in that moment. Honestly, I almost felt excitement feeling like I was experiencing this uncharted territory for the first time, and seeing new sights.

Just this morning I read something that my friend Douglas Cox wrote where he said “The thief of your future uses so many flimsy walls to keep you away from God’s plan.” Those walls for me have been fear, judgment, feeling insecure and incapable. Those walls for me have been shying away from these dark and unfamiliar paths. That’s kept me from so much, but today, as I remember that feeling of uncertainty from last week, I feel inspired and ready for the journey ahead. The old Shauna would have ran from this dark and uncertain path. The old Shauna didn’t like change and not knowing what path I was on, but I have learned to trust God and trust that although I cannot see the path, I know who guides me.

Maybe you find yourself in a familiar place today. Maybe the road you are on, the season you are in, seems dark and unfamiliar. Maybe you feel as if you don’t know where you are, or where you are going. Maybe like me, you are not enjoying the journey, but rather want to be focused on the destination. Let me urge you today to spend some time in prayer, or reading, or mediating, or whatever that thing is that brings you peace and clarity. You see, we don’t have to see the entire staircase, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. so brilliantly wrote, we just have to take the first step. Clarity and direction come with faith and action. Just taking one step at a time, trusting and believing that some day we will have a clear vision. Some day we will be able to look back at that road we just traveled by faith, and see we ended up exactly where we were supposed to end up!

Don’t live in fear today of the change that’s taking place inside of you! You see, to bring change, we first have to be changed! Turn your headlights on bright, put the car in drive, and start on your journey. Exciting things come in uncharted territory! Our eyes are opened, we see new things, our vision becomes clear and our future bright!

With love for you all,

Shauna