When God Leads

I was walking along the beach this past week. There were tons of small shells laying one the sand for more than a mile. Piles of them at least an inch thick. As I was walking, I thought about all the times I use to love digging for shells. I would find an area far away from the shore and I would dig and dig until I would find the most beautiful conch shells and other large shells that aren’t on the surface. They are buried a foot or more down from storms and surges.

Suddenly, I veered off course and walked up about twenty steps and stopped and dug. Sure enough, my first dig produced an amazing, fully in tact, large shiny orange shell. I was so excited I dug some more. I didn’t find anything so I moved to another spot. This continued until my arm, shoulder and back were killing me. I was so determined to find another beautiful shell that I WAS WILLING TO CONTINUE IN PAIN JUST TO PROVE I COULD FIND ONE. BUT…I never did.

After nearly an hour of digging, I gave up. I headed back to my walking route near the water, and as I walked, it hit me! The shell had taught me a lesson.

When GOD leads you you will find what you are looking for. If HE isn’t in it, all the work you are doing is wasting time and energy, and it could be causing you physical pain. Sometimes the good things aren’t the easy things. I could have easily picked up plenty of shells on the surface, but they were small, and not what I wanted. The one I wanted was deep under the sand and took work to get to it.

There was nothing special about the spot I first dug, other than something led me to that spot. I thought that because I had easily found the first one when I dug, that I would easily find another one. Determination without God is just exhausting movements. Determination with God are movements that are exalting.