Reflections

The Steps of a Good Man are Ordered (or Getting to France Part 1)

• By Abel
• August 1, 2017
• No Comments

I wasn’t brought up in the church.  But a friend of mine saw how things seemed to be lining up for me and she commented, “You know, He is ordering your steps.”  I didn’t know what she was talking about and she pulled out her Bible and showed me Psalm 37:23 “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.  And, He delights in his way.”

Now this passage is near and dear to my heart and when something goes better than I could have planned it I think, He’s ordering my steps, and I smile. Some people believe in coincidences, I believe in God’s will.

As I reflect on the last two years of my life, I see so many things that have fallen into place for me, that is, when I listen to my intuition.  My journey goes more smoothly, perhaps not according to my plan, but I’m led to different options along the way. Options I most likely wouldn’t have seen or been willing to consider. Options that help me reach my goals.

I am open to taking alternate paths.  I have let go of the idea that I (my logical mind) know best. I have faith in my own intuition, this inner sense of what is right or wrong. And I use this knowing to make better decisions and to take decisive action.  All these things in combination have created an ease in moving through life as I work toward my goals. I’ve relied on these things when I sat down to write my first  book, in finding an editor, and in publishing it in only nine months from when I started, among other accomplishments.

Now, I keep getting told how much easier it will be for me to find a job in Toulouse, France than in Perpignan, France.  Toulouse is a bigger city, more English speaking opportunities, etc.  I hear them, I understand the logic of moving to a bigger city to find a job, but I keep coming back to the initial sense of freedom I felt the first time I went to Perpignan on a whim.  In Toulouse, I had a very different feeling. When I walked down the main street, throbbing with people, for the first time that May day, I felt constriction and overwhelm.  Toulouse is a very nice city, but it did not give me that same special feeling that  Perpignan did; I could not envision myself living there.  Toulouse didn’t feel right to me; Perpignan did.

While I’m not living in Perpignan, yet, things seem to be falling into place for it to happen.  I’ve been introduced to a Canadian coach, Margherita, who lives there, I’ve connected with Catherine at the Mediation Center and with several others who are excited for me and willing to help me.  I’ve found a wonderful Weight Watcher meeting. And the town feels so right. I don’t feel like I’m running away from Richmond. I feel like I’m running into the arms of my future.

I look at money too – the amount I’ll need to prove I can live there for a year without having a French job is almost exactly the amount I’ve got saved.  A similar thing happened a few years ago that allowed me to buy my mother’s car outright.  Signs. Serendipity. God’s will.

Stuart Wilde posited that 90% of what is placed in front of us is not right for us.  I’m not sure where he came up with that figure, but I do think that there are a lot of things that come our way that won’t serve us in the most effective way, things that create struggle not allowing us to move through life with ease.

Sometimes we can have faith that God is ordering our steps and blindly embrace whatever is placed in our path and believe it to be ordained by God, without discernment.  In these cases our desires and fears block our ability to see the path of flow. Our own tunnel vision narrows our perspectives and cause us to be blind to right action.  We can not see alternatives to the most obvious, though not most advantageous, next steps. Our fears block and ensnare them in a cloud of non-viability and incompatibility.  Or own doubts cause us to stumble and to take a path of greater resistance. We follow a path where our steps are not ordered by God, our higher self, source energy, or whatever you choose to call this higher power at work in the universe.

I believe my steps are being ordered by God because I’m moving beyond my fears, self-doubts, insecurities, and reliance on pure logic.  I am opening up to trust my gut instincts, on what my next moves should be.  As a result I see opportunity in everything.

On Friday, July 28, I got the message loud and clear that the end of October 2017 is when I’m moving to France.  I clearly felt that it will come to pass without my pushing or struggling to make it happen, despite the few days left to get done everything I must accomplish to get it going.  I no longer believe that it will have to slip by one, two, or three months. The end of October 2017 feels intuitively right.  And I am working toward that date peacefully as God orders my steps.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Bishop