I was young when the movie “Mahogany” came out in theaters.  I don’t recall what it was rated but my parents told me I could not see it.  Kids being what they are, I defied their directive and saw the movie.  Regardless, the lyrics from the theme song resonate in my heart these days.  Take a look, do they speak to your heart as they do mine?

Theme from Mahogany (Do you know where you’re going to?)

Do you know where youre going to?
Do you like the things that life is showin’ you?
Where are you going to?
Do you know?

Do you get what youre hopin’ for
When you look behind you, theres no open doors
What are you hopin’ for?
Do you know?

Once we were standin’ still in time
Chasin’ the fantasies that filled our minds
You knew how I loved you but my spirit was free
Laughin at the questions that you once asked of me

Do you know where youre going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you goin’ to?
Do you know?

Now lookin’ back at all weve planned
We let so many dreams just slip through our hands
Why must we wait so long before well see
How sad the answers to those questions can be?

Do you know where youre going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to?
Do you know?

Do you get what youre hopin’ for
When you look behind you, theres no open doors
What are you hopin’ for?
Do you know?

Unfortunately for me, the answers to the questions this song asks are a resounding “No!”. My heart longs for the days I was chasing fantasies, laughing at life’s serious questions, making plans but failing to plan how to make them come to fruition.  And indeed the answers to those questions are sad.

I now have no idea where I’m going.  I don’t like the things life has shown me thus far.  I may have received many of the things I was hoping for but have failed to hold on to them: they have slipped through my hands.  And I can’t turn around and reopen those doors, but I can choose to go forward.

Is it really necessary to have plans? To have dreams?  To know where I’m going?  Should I step outside my door today, might God set me on the path He wishes for me to take?

In this day and age we put a lot of stock in making a plan and working that plan.  We ascribe to the idea that failing to plan equates with failing to achieve, but I wonder if that is really true.

If I come to God void of my own personal objectives (which is, in fact, the place I find myself for the first time in my life) will He not lead me where He wants me to go?  Am I not a more malleable follower now than I’ve ever been in the past?  Having laid down so many hopes, dreams and expectations, and coming before Him a blank slate will He allow me to simply wander in the wilderness of inactivity forevermore?  Maybe He will if I don’t seek His will for the remaining days of my life.  Maybe He will stand back and wait for me to invite His will into my life.  Or maybe He will prove to be the gentle shepherd scripture describes Him to be.

Maybe like the Biblical shepherd He will simply lead me – through the valley of the shadow of death – by still waters – to green pastures – to a banquet laid before me with a restored soul (Psalm 23).  The Bible tells me that God is near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18).  He draws close.  He doesn’t abandon me to my misery. It tells me to trust in the Lord instead of myself and He will direct my paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).  It also tells me that His Word is a lamp to my feet (shows me where I am) and a light to my path (shows me where I’m going) (Psalm 119:105).

So maybe it doesn’t matter if I don’t know where I’m going and don’t like the scenery along the way.  Maybe it matters little if I receive what I was hoping for and have come to a place of closed doors, lost fantasies and a tethered spirit.  From God’s perspective I don’t need all the answers; I just need to trust that He knows them.  I don’t need to know where I’m going, I just need His Word to show me where I am and allow it to light the path He wishes for me to take.  Maybe it’s a good thing that my future appears void before me solely because I am no longer straining in a direction God never intended me to go.  Instead, I am allowing Him to lead me to green pastures and still waters that provide rest and nourishment for the next path He plans to lead me down