I did not expect the life I am living—it was not the plan. At all. That’s the general feeling that I have when I look at the direction my adult life has taken. Yet, here I am.
The vision I had for my life
When I was a teen, I wanted to be a storyteller, writing and drawing comic books.1 I was accepted as a student at a private school specializing in training artists for the field of comics. I wrote and drew constantly. In fact, my first published work is actually in an independently published anthology comic from the early 2000s. (I guarantee you’ll never find a copy of it; believe me, I’ve looked.)
This is what I wanted to do. It was hard work, but fun work. If ever I felt like there was something I was sure about, it was that. And yet, that is not where things went.
The unexpected path my life took
Instead of making comic books, I started my career as a graphic designer. Five years later, I joined the marketing team of a non-profit as a project manager. Which then led to me writing professionally for the first time. I started writing online in 2009, which I did every day for nearly 10 years. This led to starting to write books and building relationships that resulted in me ultimately making my home in the United States, where I’ve been for over seven years as of late 2023.
And none of this is anything I planned. Working with the Bible every day in some way, shape, or form, both professionally and personally, was not on my radar at all in my early 20s. Not even in my late-20s after I became a Christian was it something I expected. Yet, here I am. Writing books, articles, and Bible studies. Teaching in my church. Helping to raise awareness of new Bible editions as part of the marketing team at one of the world’s largest Christian publishers.
How do we embrace the unexpected paths?
None of it was in the plan, but it’s the life I have. And I’m grateful for it. But that doesn’t mean that the questions that come from finding ourselves on unexpected paths don’t remain. All the hypothetical what ifs that can leave us in paralyzed as we overanalyze our lives. But there is one big question that is we do need to address: How do we actually embrace the unexpected paths our lives have taken?
By seeing where we are, ultimately, as an act of God’s providence.
By providence, I mean God’s active and ongoing rule over his creation. His unseen hand at work guiding the events of history and our lives, according to his purposes (Romans 8:28-29). His provision for and sustaining of his people in ways that are seen and unseen. This powerful work of God that we are all prone to forget about because it’s the work we don’t even think about at all—and yet it is the work that holds the entire universe together (Colossians 1:17).
And although providence does not remove our ability to make real, meaningful choices, it means that while where are might seem unexpected to us, it is exactly where God wants us to be. Specifically to grow us in our faith. To work things together according to his purposes. And to make us more like Jesus.
The truth that holds all things together
Providence is a complex truth that holds many mysteries, because even though I’ve used positive examples here, providence isn’t limited to positives in our lives. God is providentially working in every area of our lives, using both the good, beautiful and true, and the evil, ugly and wicked. And we don’t always get the answers we want to the whys behind those things.
Despite its mysteries, this truth is one that, even if it doesn’t make all the seemingly unexpected paths our lives have taken make sense in the moment, holds them together. Providence helps us to recognize, not that our plans or dreams were bad, but that God might have something different in mind for us. Something better in a way we may not ever fully understand, but is for our good and his glory.
So is my life what I expected? No. Has it been easy? Not at all. Does it all make sense to me? Not at all. But even so, I can rest in the fact that where I am is where he wanted me to be all along. He steered my desires in new directions and used the gifts I already had to do something greater than I could have anticipated. And that seems like reason enough to give him thanks, especially for the unexpected paths life has taken.
Photo by Caleb Jones on Unsplash
- And who knows, maybe I’ll still get to do one of those someday. ↩︎
