God blessed the broken road

Well, if Sam is reading this, I think I'm about to lose some cool points... I'm blogging about a country song. I have heard Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts on the radio several times recently and the lyrics really do have some pretty awesome meaning to them. To see the lyrics, go to this site. This really got me thinking about how true this has been in my life.

I spent years of my life (almost 20 of them) looking around for something that would make me happy or satisfy me- money, success, pleasure, relationships and found these all to be false hopes that only left me still looking. There were some pretty awful times of letdown and depression when I discovered that yet another false hope I had ended up letting me down.

Then, about five and a half years ago, instead of finding what I was looking for, He found me. I discovered that the satisfaction and joy I searched for could only be found in Christ. It was so freeing to realize (as I'm still learning today) that true joy and delight is only found in God Himself and not His blessings, or anything else short of Him.

It's easy looking back to have regrets about things I've done or wish I hadn't gone through some of what I have. But, I can also see the purpose behind them- these things were like northern stars, leading me to God's arms and have played a role in making me who I am. I also would not be nearly as able to relate to others and help them if I hadn't experienced some of what I have.

Life is a broken road... but it's meant to lead to the ultimate Lover who has been there the whole time. I don't understand how it all works, but somehow God set it up so that all my screw-ups, disappointments and sins would serve the purpose of leading me to Him. So, instead of regrets, I can be thankful for how God has used all of these. It really does show His power in such an awesome way to see how He reached to me in the midst of being sidetracked by all these other things... more so than had I not had to go through things like pain and disappointment.

Philippians 3:12 seems to be the words I'm trying to say here:
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.