ElizabethIf there is one thing you need to know about me, it’s that I am a quote person. I just love how a few words can can carry such depth of thought and encouragement. One of my favorite quotes at the moment comes from the renowned author J.R.R. Tolkien and it goes like this:
“Not all who wander are lost.”
Most of you have probably seen this quote lots of times before. I confess, I’ve seen it so many times in my life that I used to shrug it off as “yeah that’s nice” and think nothing more of it. However, now that I am at college and still at a loss for what career path God wants me to walk down, I came to realize that I am, in fact, a wanderer. I have been roaming this world for 19 years, and for as long as I can remember, I have always been a bit of a nomad. Wanting to do anything and everything yet not knowing which path to commit to. I had thought that by the time I made it to high school I would know what I wanted to do in life, but that didn’t happen. Now that I’m a college student, I’ve been finding myself discouraged that I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I find myself thinking, “Why has God left me lost?”
I think that these feelings of being lost are very common in this world, and it can be easy to look to God and ask, “What am I missing? Why do I feel this way?” The beautiful thing about being a Christian, however, is that we know the Author of our story, and more importantly, we know Him to be a strategic Author. There is no decision God has ever made that had no purpose, and one of His decisions was to create you!
As I have my devotional time with God, go to church, and listen to speakers at school, every message has been carrying a similar theme: that each and every one of us were born for such a time as this. We were tailor made for our destinies.
God even goes so far as to say that we are “His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (see Ephesians 2:10). An artist doesn’t sit down to create a piece of artwork just for kicks. An artist will suddenly have an inspiration for a piece and will have in mind a purpose for that piece to fulfill. They will then methodically put time and effort into each movement he takes in creating their piece until they have perfected it. We are that art piece. We have been made for a specific purpose, and our seasons of wandering are simply part of God’s artistic process.
So, the next time you think you are lost, remember that you are a masterpiece, and masterpieces are created to fulfill purposes. You would not be placed on this earth simply to wander. Instead, you were created to wander, and in doing so, to become the person God has intended you to be.
More verses to encourage you:
- 1 Corinthians 15:57 – “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
- Hebrew 11:1 – “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
- Jeremiah 1:5 – “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
- 2 Peter 1:3 – “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.”
- Jeremiah 29:13 – “And you will seek me and find me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
- 1 Peter 2:9 – But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood…[God’s] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
- Psalm 9:10 – “Those who know Your name will put their trust in You; for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.”
