Meant to be?

 I didn't grow up listening to American Country Music, and I'm not, what you would say:  a fan, BUT I can appreciate its merits, especially when it comes to the lyrics.  Country Music typically injects a strong dose of poignancy on the one hand, while on the other it showers you with hope, humor and irony.  Clever writing and rhyming make for good story-telling...and even the shortest of songs can pull at one's heart strings with great intensity.  Such is the case of "Meant to Be" a cross-over song by a singer-song-writer who is NOT known as a country music star, but she featured a country music duo as well as country style tunes, so it broke into the Country Music Charts with force...and even though the song was released in 2017, it recently marked the Billion views mark in YouTube...a BILLION...

At any rate, I'm not here to promote the song, but the line:  "if it's meant to be, it'll be...baby just let it be" popped into my mind when I was reading today's piece in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.  I know, right?  Crazy!  But that's the brain, for you...

At the end of today's devotional reading the author states:

"At critical moments it is necessary to ask guidance, but it ought to be unnecessary to be saying always: "O Lord, direct me here, and there." Of course He will!  If our common-sense decisions are not His order, He will press through them and check; then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence."

I'm a firm believer that the road the Lord wants us to walk on is not supposed to lead us onto a cliff.  A cliff is a mass of rock that rises very high and is almost vertical, like a wall...a WALL...and I think, if we hit a wall, regardless of the angle: be it from the top of it or from the bottom...that means we are not going much further.  I don't think that's where God's road is supposed to take us.  Of course, by His power and might we could climb that wall or jump over the cliff...however...I tend to think that, if by any chance we end up facing an unsurmountable wall or barrier...perhaps, that might not have been exactly the road we were supposed to be on...and the wall appears so we turn around and get back on the right track...just sayin'.

I believe, if it's meant to be, it'll be...and vice versa.

And when it is not meant to be...it doesn't matter how much we try to force it.  The wall will remain unclimbed...and if we jump over the cliff...chances are we won't make it.

It is at that point: the wall facing point, when seemingly common-sense decisions that are "not His order" will be checked by Him as we quietly wait for the "direction of His presence."  And that is the key: the direction of His presence.  I believe that's how we know whether "it is meant to be" or not: by asking ourselves the question of whether His Presence is here/there or not...and by waiting quietly for His answer.  "Are You here Lord?"  "Are You in this wall, Lord?" "Is this Your wall for me?"  "Is this Your cliff for me?"  "Are You in the climb?"  "Are You in the jump?" or "Are You on the way back, away from it?"

Seeking Him first is our mission in life.  His presence goes before us.  If those are not our guiding principles...I'm sure we are headed to places where we are just not meant to be...and forcing it just because we want it or think we need it and desire it or because it makes sense to us...might end up hurting us. And we might end up like the subject of a sad country song that ends in tragedy...sigh...

I just pray that the Lord will reveal His Presence to us clearly and strongly so we can be guided by it wherever we go.  In the Precious Name of Jesus, The One Who We Seek.  Amen.