When God Takes You Places You’ve Never Been

Recently I was at work, doing my work thing, with the radio playing out at the nurses’ station. It’s a common thing and normally I don’t pay much attention. So much of today’s music puts me in a mental place that isn’t helpful for maintaining obedience to my maker, so I intentionally tune it out. On this particular day, a classic love song began to play and as Alison Krauss started to sing I found myself suddenly intrigued by the lyrics.

It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word, you can light up the dark
Try as I may I could never explain
What I hear when you don’t say a thing…-Alison Krauss

Of course the song goes on, and in the past listening to it would have made me feel lovesick or frustrated, or maybe a bit of both. Though on this particular day, it brought to mind the greatest love I’ve experienced in this life, the one who loves me like no one else ever has, the one who has never let me down and is always there for me…and I smiled as I realized that God had just given me a love song, a song that reflected the intimacy that had grown between us over the past few years, through hours and hours of conversation, between God and me. He had truly become the love for me that David refers to in the Psalms.

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1 ESV

My pastor was saying just today that God will never ask you to give anything that he won’t bless you for in return. A few years ago when I chose to take a dating hiatus, I never imagined I would be sitting here feeling more loved than I have in my whole life, with no regrets over the sacrifices I made. It hasn’t always been easy, and to be honest, sometimes I’ve felt downright miserable, but I made a commitment and stuck to it, by the grace and provision of God, and now I stand here amazed at the incredible foundation he has laid for the next season of my life.

It’s scary stepping off into that unknown, taking that leap of faith into our worst fears, but when God takes you places you’ve never been, you can bank on his presence and provision to get you through…and you can depend on exciting things to come as he blesses your willingness to live more fully in him.