Guidance Counselor

Guidance Counselor

The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” Psalm 32:8

“What do you mean I failed the test? I’ve never failed a test in my life!” I said, protesting much more than the moment called for.

“It was only an eye test,” the doctor said, “you’ll get past it.”

What he didn’t know was that failing the eye exam was the only thing preventing me from becoming an Air Force pilot. I was eighteen years old and poor. Becoming a pilot was the only way I knew to get off the farm and fly away from the memories of my past.

I went to see my college professor and told him what had happened. “You could get another job in the military,” he suggested.

“If I can’t fly, I don’t want another job in the military!”

“Then what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“You would make a good dentist,” he said.

I returned a month later, even more upset than I’d been the first time. “I failed that test, too, because I couldn’t see the pictures!”

“Ahh,” he said. “You should take the MCAT to get into medical school. It doesn’t have all of that visual perception stuff on it. You would make a fine doctor.”

So, for the third time in three months, I went to take a test that would determine the direction of my life. I didn’t have a lot of hope.

A few weeks later, the results came in the mail. I had passed! Apparently, being able to see well is not a requirement for becoming a doctor.

Looking back, it’s easy for me to see how God guided me toward the path he had for my life, even though I had other plans and was an atheist at the time. God nudged me through open doors and nudged me past closed doors and even squeezed me through a window or two. I didn’t know he was guiding me, until much later when he and I became reacquainted.

To this day, he continues to guide me through life, and he will until I reach the other side of the veil and see him face-to-face.

TODAY’S RX

If you are surrounded by confusion and closed doors, look to God for guidance.

Give me peace, Lord, when my plans do not always align with yours. Show me the path to take, and restore my hope when doors seem to continually shut in front of me. You know the way, and I will follow after you.