And God Asked Hagar…

“Where have you come from and where are you going?”

As I began working my way through The Third Path, God’s question to Hagar hit me like the clichéd ton of bricks. Where am I going? I realized it was the question that had already begun to prick at me, ruffling my calm and making once sure steps tentative.

Culture and career demands we have a five-year and ten-year plan for our lives. But what if those plans are upended through an unexpected divorce or death, by a virus and subsequent lockdown, or even by our own mistakes and failures?

What if, like Hagar, we one day find ourselves sitting in the middle of the ruins of the life we pictured and expected to live, and God comes to us with such a question? How will we answer?

I knew where (and even what) I have come from, but did I know where I was going? No. And that was the problem. Because, really how could I know? I wasn’t God. Only he knows the plans for me, to prosper and not harm me, to give me a hope and a future. But those are nebulous concepts. Isn’t his question asking for a concrete answer?

After a good deal of wrestling and finding no answer, I finally decided to let the question rest overnight. And in the morning, as I was sipping my coffee and pondering, I found my answer.

Where am I going?
I’m going with you, God.

It is answer that’s, on the one hand, nebulous and yet on the other, concrete. How like God. 😊 ❤️

What about you? How will you answer as God asks you his question of Hagar, “Where have you come from and where are you going?”