Making a Way

Contrary to what many seem to believe today that they should be given health care, housing, college education, good paying jobs, etc., I grew up believing, as our Declaration of Independence declares, that we are endowed by our Creator with "the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."  I believed that to have the life I wanted, while I had the God-given right to pursue, I would have to make my own way.

I believed that I would have to set goals, make preparations and work hard in order to gain the kind of life I wanted to have.  The idea that the Federal Government would provide for all my needs, let alone wants, never crossed my mind.  And, by the way, it still does not resonate with me.  I believe that to be on the government dole is a bit like "owing my soul to the company store."

Just like when people use to live, work and purchase goods - all on company land and were therefore nothing much more than slaves on a different kind of plantation, I think many are giving themselves over to the control and ownership of the government.  By providing the funding, out of the pockets of other citizens, the government also determine what you can and should have.  You accept a right of pursuit begins and ends with those in power rather than insist on rights endowed by our Creator.

As I've experienced life over the last 60 years, I have come to see that my ability to pursue life, to make my own way, is limited by circumstances over which I have little to no control.  I had a business, a new home and a path to retirement that was all retired when my first wife was diagnosed with stage four cancer. Everything came o an abrupt halt.

When I remarried and we began on a new and exciting path, within a couple of months, she was diagnosed with stage four cancer and our path has been altered ever since.  I am simply not in control of the circumstances of life, I do not have the power to make my own way.  I can work at it, I can react to it, but I cannot make it.

Thankfully, I have discovered that while I am not empowered to make my own way, I don't have to.  And I don't have to trust in an over-bearing bureaucracy to give me handouts with strings attached.  Instead, I trust in Jesus, who is "the way, the truth and the life" (Jn 14:6).  My way is settled, it is "the path of life" (cf. Matt 7:13-14).  And, whatever God allows me to have here, I have a future that is secure.

I'm not diggin in here, I'm passing through.  "And my God will meet all [my] needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:19).  I cannot determine what life will bring my way but I can trust that God will provide for my journey and that my victorious life in Christ begins here but lasts into eternity. Jus' Say'n.