We all, at times, can want to have a clear idea of where we are, where we are going, and how to get there. Life can be confusing and frustrating when we aren’t sure if we are going the right direction, or aren’t sure what outcomes a choice may lead us to.
Getting To One Place
What would it be like if we had guidance for our life and our choices like how our phone apps provide for us when going to a specific destination. Turn by turn, clear and specific – “go left, and turn right at the next stop. Merge onto the freeway, then go 250 miles, exit at road 111, and your destination will be 300 feet on your left. So much easier, right?
When you know exactly where you want to go, and you have only that one thing to do, this works well – and most of us do this pretty well already, even without turn-by-turn directions. We navigate college, career, and relationships – not always smoothly, but we generally get there. But who gets the luxury of having just a single thing to aim at in their life? We want to have the career, the travel, the relationship, the friends, the adventures, the home that fits our needs, pets, kids, and all those incredibly beautiful and interesting, but complex, things.
The Amazon Routes
Imagine your phone map trying to get you to five different destinations at the same time using turn by turn guidance. If you were lucky, it would like an Amazon driver delivery route. If you aren’t so lucky, it would have you spinning and retracing your steps so much you’d feel like the hamster on the wheel – going nowhere very fast. (well, maybe that is how you feel now. If so, very sorry).
So, a phone app (that detailed, point A to point B) guidance works well if you are doing just one thing. Thankfully, most of us have many things going on, even if it can feel like running in a maze, juggling balls, while balancing on a unicycle. And if you are fortunate, you have time to eat.
So, how do we hear and understand guidance in those circumstances? How do we keep our life from looking like an Amazon delivery designed by a blind person? How can guidance get through, and more, be helpful with so much going on all the time?
Guidance and Choice
Some of this is still up to us and our choices. Do we decide what is in front of us, or do we fall into doing too much? Do we say yes, when saying no means we can take a shorter route through the maze? Do we pause and look at the sky to see which direction we are even going? Or do we simply plow ahead, regardless – out of frustration, desperation, or simply fatigue?
In all of this, what does that guidance even look like? Many of us are taught guidance is “always available”. At the same time (and I’ve experienced this) it seems to be very hard to get any guidance. It often can feel almost random, or worse, simply not there in a lot of situations.
What is missing is how we look for or expect guidance to show up. It really is there, but it is there to be helpful, not to give us the turn-by-turn directions. Imagine that: remember, the phone app is assuming a single destination – you have a dozen or more at the same time. You need to juggle different priorities and choices, but the ‘guidance’ is focused on just one or two things at most. How confusing and unhelpful that will be. Worse, it will eliminate any decisions you want to make, other than getting you to the one place it’s aiming at. All else suffers.
Earlier, I noted that most of us do a reasonable job with most things in our lives, and we do it even with multiple goals and events coming along for the ride each day. So, really, we likely don’t want the phone app telling us how to get from the bedroom to the kitchen. Of course, we all still will face those big challenges and choices, when we really do need some help and guidance. So, we reach out. We pray, we ask. Often, we ask a yes or no question (is this a good decision? Is this Mr Right? Am I doing too much?) And we wait. What happens then?
Burning Bushes
We are looking for the burning bush; we are looking for the turn here, go two miles, and your destination is on the left. Yes, your life will be amazing and wonderful if you do this versus that – stated as clearly as that in our ear, right? And if that happens – know you have been blessed with an amazing miracle.
Spirit guidance always will leave room for our choices. It allows for us to set our own course. It is much more like reading a map than having a detailed list of directions fed to us. It can also come in ways we don’t expect. We might be looking for the yes/no or ‘this one is clearly better’ type of direction, so when guidance comes, we may feel like it’s silence, because we are looking for something that would otherwise reduce or eliminate our freedom.
Sometimes, the answer may come from unexpected (or less optimal) sources. If we ask “am I going too fast?”, only the cop pulling us over, or having the illness or injury, or the detour that puts us behind and forces us to change direction, will be the firm answer that yes, we need to slow down.
Advice vs Directions
Spirit guidance may also not be what we might see as ‘guidance’ but more as a comment or an idea, because we must still make the decision. When I got our cat, I had settled on which one I wanted and was about to head out the door when I saw a second cat there. As I walked past it, a small, quiet voice said, “this cat won’t be adopted”. It didn’t tell me, “get this cat” or even “this cat will be amazing for you”. The comment gave me a lot of room for choice – getting her meant three cats in the house; and two kittens at once, with an established cat at home. But it asked me to pause and think.
The 
decision to get the second cat has had significant impact in my life; she has been an amazing and loving companion. My first-choice cat is wonderful as well, but she has a much quieter and more independent personality, so having the second, very loving, cat is an appreciated joy in my life every day – all because the voice said to me, “it won’t be adopted”.
So, a key thing to remember is that loving, spirit guidance does come. Be open to how it comes and is shared. Trust it is there / on the way. Even what seems like silence can at times be helpful, as it can be guiding you to trust yourself; trust that you have already made the best decision for yourself, and trust that you are heading in the right direction.
Coming up, I’ll be sharing how to know it’s guidance, our thinking, or our fears.
Love, and until next time.
