We’ve all heard the cliche that our journey in life is filled with twists, turns, bumps and uneven pavement on the road to becoming our best selves. We search for the straightest path - the path of least resistance - only to find life throwing one challenge after another at us. We are convinced that these adversities must be endured, that the obstacles and detours along the way were necessary and without them we would fail to reach our fullest human potential. And I believe this is all true.
But have we ever turned around to look at the road behind us? You may be surprised at what you see.
At our Lasallian Leadership seminar last week I heard an adage that hit me to my core:
The straight road is the one behind you.
Rather than twists and turns, when we take time to reflect on our journey we will see that the road we’ve been on has lead us to be exactly where we are supposed to be.
And when we accept this, those stories, those struggles, those moments of grace, those times of uncertainty, those decisions we’ve made all come together to put us in the place that we are intended to be. But do we ever stop to see this?
If we did, if we ever took the time to look back and reflect we would see that treacherous road has straightened its path and has set us on an expressway to do the real work we are called to do here.
The moments stay with us. The twists, the turns, the good the bad, they strengthen us if we let them. But they don’t define us.
What we do next just might.