His way teaches you who he is and who you are with him. ===
JOURNEY TO A
HIGH PLACE
DR. SAUNDRA DALTON-SMITH | ICHOOSEMYBESTLIFE.COM
LIFE IS NOT AN UNTESTED JOURNEY. THE HEARTACHE AND DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE PAST CAN LEAVE YOU AFRAID to dream,
to desire, to hope. It’s safer to stay stuck in the comfort of your fears than to expect more. My heart and mind were in this condition when I first encountered Hannah Hurnard’s book Hinds’ Feet on High Places. I was grounded in my doubts and residing on a level much lower than God’s best. Despite the mental chains that had me bound, my curiosity about what was possible remained. It stirred my heart to trust the Shepherd when he beckoned me to follow him into the unknown. Like the main character in Hunard’s allegory, I was Much-Afraid. I feared change. I feared new people. I feared transparency. I feared humiliation. I feared exposure. I feared growth. I feared success. I feared failure. I had many fears. But the one person I was not afraid of was the Shepherd. He had never hurt me. With gentle care, he had nurtured and comforted me in my fears. This began
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my dilemma about his invitation to journey with him to the high places. How do I say no to him when everything within me wants to trust him more? How do I break free from the gravity of my fears to soar on the wind of his love? “In all the world, I have no one but you. Help me to follow you, even though it seems impossible. Help me to trust you as much as I long to love you.” ―Hannah Hurnard, Hinds’ Feet on High Places Maybe you can relate. You feel the pull of his love calling you to follow him on a new adventure for 2020. Your spirit cries out, “Yes, Lord! I will follow you.” But your mind tells you this journey is too risky. You know him to be good, but you’ve experienced enough bad in your life to be hesitant. You stand on the precipice of the new thing he wants to bring you into and slowly back away from the edge. The seed of his loving call is prickly with the thorns of the unknown.
“Much-Afraid looked at the thorn and shrank from it. Then she looked at the Shepherd’s face and repeated his words to herself. ‘When the seed of
