It seems to me that there are two types of people...there are those who walk along the paths that are already marked out for them and those who take to the fields and create their own paths for others to follow.
It dawned on me today, as we were driving over Caerphilly mountain, that there was once a time when there were no roads, no allocated pathways...just land. Whether that be fields, forests or deserts, it was land untouched and ready to be explored. Paths were created as people walked the same ground over and over and eventually they got turned into roads.
I love it when you walk through a field of long grass and you can see where people have walked before you because the grass has been trodden down... a path had been created. All it took was one person to venture out for others to follow where they could see it was safe. I don't know about you but if I see a trodden down path on a field I naturally gravitate towards it because it's clear that someone has already been that way, which means it's bound to lead somewhere.
(If you haven't twigged on already I'm using the paths as a metaphor.)
I'm talking about leaders and followers.
There are those who lead the way into new things and those who follow and make the path more permanent. I imagine some of you are already putting yourselves into one of those catagories, which is fine, they're both equally important. But what if I were to say we're all leaders and we're all followers. Every great leader has had to learn what it is to first follow. In following we learn what it is to be humble and to live under authority... There's nothing worse than a proud leader. I believe that it is in all of us to step out of what we already know and lead the way in something new. Whether that be changing a way of thinking or inventing something new. It's in our DNA to seek more than what we already know, to be better than what we already are. The moment we decide we've reached the end of our imaginations we've settled for less than what we have inherited.
I admire those people who discovered countries and invented all those things we now take for granted and pushed for an unseen reality and I admire their faithful followers who humbled themselves to someone else's vision. But if we all remain followers we will eventually reach a dead end. We can't be scared to tread new ground. We can't be scared to make a dream a reality. We can't let fear of man hold us back from breaking the mold.
I know Jesus and I know that his plans for me are going to lead me to places and things in which I won't have a path to follow, the path will be made of my foot prints and my hand prints and others will walk in them. If I was doing this on my own it would either be frighting or I would become proud of my own efforts but the wonderful thing about them being Jesus' plans is that he has already set the path ahead of me and he is with me the whole way. He only has good plans for me and trusting in him will take me on all sorts of adventures. See, even in being a leader I am still a follower. If you desire to lead others you must learn to follow and continue to follow by surrendering all of your desires to Jesus to gain his desires. Following Jesus is exciting when you really trust that he has good plans for you and he's not leading you blind into a mine field!
So let His desires become your desires and watch where he leads you!
