When I was 21, I lived in London as a college exchange student. During my stay in England, it exhilarated me to hop on the train, travel to a part of the city I hadn’t seen before and wander around without an agenda.

My sweet roommate, however,  was a planner. She needed to know why she was going somewhere, how to get there, and what to do once she arrived. One evening, when we were supposed to attend a concert, my roomie was naturally in charge of getting us there, so she had the map.

Only something went wrong.

We got lost and for over 90 minutes we wandered the crooked streets of London without a clue where we were headed. Sure, I wanted to see the concert, but after a while I thought, “That’s okay. If we can’t find it, we can do something else.”

My roommate was so exasperated that she kicked a cement post in the middle of the sidewalk several times. I was certain she had broken her toes. We eventually found the concert and made our way home with her toes—thankfully—uninjured.

Understandably, my roomie felt the trip from our apartment to the concert should have been a straight line, like the one an arrow makes to a bull’s-eye. Instead, it was like the trip a bee makes from one flower to another—in loop-de-loops and circles.

When God is revealing His purposes and plans for you through seasons of life, remember that even if He has told you how you will ultimately serve Him, it doesn’t mean that the fulfillment of that promise will happen in a straight line. Instead, you might feel like you are going in loop-de-loops and circles, like you are wandering. This is okay. Remember that even if some of your “circles” seem unrelated to God’s calling, He will weave them into His plan to perfect that which concerns you (Psalm 138:8).

You’re Not Alone

Joseph must have known what it felt like to wander in circles. In Genesis, God showed him through dreams that his brothers would bow down and worship him (Gen. 37:5-6). It wasn’t until many years later after being sold into slavery, serving Potiphar for 10 years, being thrown into prison for two years (after Potiphar’s wife accused him of trying to rape her) and becoming the Prime Minister of Egypt that Joseph’s brothers finally did do just as his dreams revealed. Scripture says God had His hand on Joseph all along for a greater purpose than he could have imagined–to save the lives of many.

If Joseph’s trip from slavery to seeing his dreams materialize wasn’t a straight line for him, then why should we expect that it will be for us?

It’s a Process, Not a Destination

Because we are often uncomfortable with anything other than a straight line, we may become frustrated like my roomie when our purpose doesn’t unfold like we planned. Therefore, we need to remember not to define success simply as a destination, or when we finally reach some “ultimate purpose.” Instead, we must define success as a process as we obey God. Then we can feel successful every day, while we wait on Him to fulfill His promises about our purpose. That’s a whole lot better than getting frustrated and kicking cement posts, don’t you think?

Additional Resources

The Blueprint for Life eight week curriculum will help you understand how to live a life on purpose!  The study contains a life-planning workbook and ten audio messages featuring Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Tony Evans, John Maxwell and others. Now available for digital download.  Click here to check it out!