The Guide in Me Is Learning to Follow

Recently, I heard someone talk about the difference between your old story and your new story.

At first, I thought about all the things that had changed in my life over the years.

A corporate career.

Leadership roles.

Successes.

Setbacks.

The loss of a career I loved.

The season I now call the in-between.

For a long time, I believed those events were the story.

I told them because they explained where I had been.

I told them because they validated what I do today.

I told them because they helped make sense of my journey.

But recently, something shifted.

I realized that I wasn't holding on to my old story.

I was holding on to the need for it.

The need to be wanted.

The need to be validated.

The need to prove that what I had done mattered.

The need to keep looking backward for evidence that I belonged where I am now.

And in that realization, I felt something unexpected.

Peace.

Not because I suddenly had all the answers.

Not because every door had opened.

Not because every dream had come to pass.

Peace because I no longer needed my past to justify my future.

The truth is, my career mattered.

The accomplishments mattered.

The setbacks mattered.

But none of them were the destination.

They were preparation.

Everything was preparation.

For years, I thought I was building a career.

Now I can see that God was building me.

He was building courage when I walked into businesses as a young salesperson with no experience and no guarantees.

He was building leadership through every promotion and responsibility.

He was building resilience through disappointments and closed doors.

He was building surrender through loss.

He was building faith in the in-between.

And all along, He was preparing me for an assignment I couldn't yet see.

Looking back, I realize that the most important thing God was building wasn't my career.

It wasn't my success.

It wasn't even my message.

It was the woman who could carry the message.

That realization changes everything.

Because suddenly my life isn't a story about what happened to me.

It's a story about who I became.

The woman who lost her career isn't the story.

The woman who learned to trust God is.

The woman who survived the in-between isn't the story.

The woman who discovered her calling is.

The woman who kept trying to make things happen isn't the story.

The woman who learned to wait on God's timing is.

Perhaps that is why this season feels so different.

For most of my life, I have been a woman of action.

When an opportunity appeared, I pursued it.

When a door opened, I walked through it.

When a problem appeared, I solved it.

Those qualities served me well.

But today I find myself learning a different lesson.

The guide in me is learning to follow.

To trust.

To wait.

To listen.

To stop running ahead and start walking beside the One who has been leading me all along.

That doesn't mean I've stopped dreaming.

It doesn't mean I've stopped building.

It doesn't mean I've stopped preparing.

It simply means that I no longer feel responsible for forcing the outcome.

My job is obedience.

God's job is direction.

My job is preparation.

God's job is promotion.

My job is faithfulness.

God's job is fruit.

And for the first time in a very long time, that feels enough.

Today, I am at peace.

Not because I know exactly what comes next.

But because I trust the One who does.

If you're in a season of uncertainty, wondering why your life has taken a turn you never expected, let me offer you this thought:

What if nothing has been wasted?

What if the successes were preparation?

What if the disappointments were preparation?

What if the waiting is preparation?

What if the chapter you're struggling to understand is actually preparing you for your most important assignment?

I don't know what that assignment is for you.

But I do know this:

If you're still here, you're still called.

And everything you've been through may be preparing you for what's next.