He Will Set Your Path Straight - 3 Tips on How to Discern God’s Leading
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“I don’t know. I can’t explain it, but it just doesn’t feel right- that’s not where I’m supposed to be.” I told my mom after meeting with a coach that was heavily recruiting me. Everything checked off on paper- this was a perfect fit… but something felt off.. I simply didn’t feel called to go there.
Little did I know that a few weeks later I would dislocate my kneecap for the second time, sending me to surgery and 300 days of PT. By random chance during this time, I visited a different university, the one that I would later attend, and quickly felt that THIS was where God wanted me to be.
“How quickly do you think you’ll fill the spots in my class?” I asked the head coach during my visit. “I’m hoping to close it out in the next month or so”. Here I was, on CRUTCHES with a coach that had never seen me play. There was just no way I could get one of those spots.
Through a series of events, such as: the head coach retiring and pausing recruitment for my class…. to the new coach just so happening to watch my first game back after being cleared, even though I hadn’t told any coaches and was guest playing for a different team… to my high school coach driving a golf cart in the pouring rain and coincidentally offering that new coach a ride to stay dry and saying, “let me tell you about one of my players” ... I was able to commit and play at the very University that God was calling me to.
Standing there ON CRUTCHES during my visit with the former coach- I just didn’t think it was possible for me to get one of those spots. But the Lord provided- and He had a path!! Just as Proverbs 3:6 tells us, “In all your ways submit to him, and He will make your paths straight.”
I loved my school and I loved the team, but 1.5 years in, I underwent another knee surgery that put me out for an entire year, so I redshirted. I had one more year left. Last year- 2020. I was supposed to report for my fifth and final year of eligibility. But 6 months prior, I graduated early and decided to forgo that extra year. I felt God calling me elsewhere, yet I didn’t know where.
I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t know what I was going to do, I didn’t see a path - but God did.
Knowing what we all know now, I would have stayed to play a fifth year, that wouldn’t have taken place. Instead, I graduated early and got an amazing job right before the pandemic hit. I continue to think about this almost every day because God truly provided. He brought me to that university and called me out of it at just the right time. We can’t always see His hand, but it’s comforting to know that He is working and He is orchestrating and there is purpose in the waiting, even if you can’t see it yet.
I share those two stories with all of you because when the Lord calls you to be somewhere, He will open the door for you to get there. The Lord made my path straight even though I couldn’t see the road while I was on it.
I realize it can be pretty difficult to know if where you feel called is actually from God. So here are three steps to help you discern if it’s really from the Lord or not.
1. Pray
In order to receive God’s guidance on a situation, you first need to approach Him. So often I get wrapped up in the anxiety and stresses of making a decision and I don’t actually ever sit down and ask God to show me His will. God WANTS to show you, talk to you and hear from you- you just have to tell Him about the situation and surrender it to Him.
2. Be Still
It is so easy for us to talk and vent and just make our prayer time a vent session or a “dear diary” entry. It’s harder for us to stop talking and be still enough to listen. Here’s the thing- the Lord WILL speak. You just have to quiet yourself enough to hear Him because He doesn’t speak audibly very often. As Saint Teresa of Calcutta (many of you may know her as Mother Teresa) said, “In the silence of the heart God speaks.”
3. Move
Let me start by saying, I think that in our Christian culture today, it is extremely easy to become fixated on this idea of only going where you KNOW WITHOUT A DOUBT that God is calling you there- and many times, this makes us do nothing instead of something. We are so afraid of not doing THE EXACT thing that God is SPECIFICALLY wanting us to do, that we become frozen out of fear. We neglect that God has given us free will, talents, desires, and dreams. Don’t be too scared of making the wrong choice that you make no choice at all. There is nothing you can do that will mess up God’s plan for your life- He is so much bigger than any decision you will make!
Laila Dilts
I’m Laila and I grew up in Indianapolis before attending Lee University in Tennessee. Today, I’m in software sales and run Livingbeloved.com where I help Christian young women deepen their faith and understanding of the Catholic Church through easy to understand posts.