Who Is Leading You?

When things don’t go the way you would like for them to, or the way you had planned, what is your response?  Do you accept things as they are or do you complain and wish for different circumstances?  In 1820 a family was blessed with a little baby girl.  But in the early months of her life she caught a cold that caused an inflammation in her eyes.  Her doctor, in an attempt to treat the sickness, applied a salve (mustard poultices) to her eyes to draw out the infection.  The cold and infection eventually left, but because of the hot poultice, so did the babies eyesight.  If you know the story of this historical hymn writer, you know this baby as Fanny J. Crosby.  Her hymn writing is legendary.

When Fanny J. Crosby wrote the old hymn, “All the Way My Savior Leads Me”, she was expressing her own sentiments of living a life with God as her guide.  Read this hymn and take note of the references she makes to being guided…

“All the way my Savior leads me, what have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt the tender mercy, Who through life has been my Guide?
Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well;
For I know whate’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.

All the way my Savior leads me, cheers each winding path I tread.
Gives me grace through every trial, feeds me with the living bread.
Though my weary steps my falter, and my soul a thirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me, Low! a spring of joy I see,
Gushing from the Rock before me, Low! a spring of joy I see.

All the way my Savior leads me O, the fullness of His love!
Perfect rest to me is promised in my Father’s house above.
When my spirit, clothed immortal, wings it’s flight to realms of day,
This my song through endless ages: Jesus lead my all the way;
This my song through endless ages: Jesus lead my all the way.”

So let me ask you again…when things don’t go the way you want them to, what is your response?  Too often we not only get upset, but we find our day becomes dampened, depressed and despondent.  Some will even blame God for their misfortune or streak of ‘bad luck’.  Even as death plagues your family, who is leading your thoughts?  Consider what Miss Crosby said later in her life about the her blindness; “…it was the best thing that could have happened to me…”  She continued, “How in the world could I have lived such a helpful life had I not been blinded.”  On another occasion she is quoted as saying, “Don’t blame the doctor; he is probably dead by this time.  But if I could meet him, I would tell him that he unwittingly did me the greatest favor in the world.”

When (not if) things ‘go south’ in your life; will you ‘give up’, ‘give in’ and blame someone else, or will you seek guidance?  If we truly trust in God; if we truly seek His favor and if we will sincerely honor our calling we’ll know the answer to the question…Who is leading your life?