“A voice proclaims: In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” (Isaiah 40:3).

Have you found yourself in a season of life that feels more like a detour than the destination? Maybe you have discovered that your destination is not at all what you envisioned for yourself? If so, I understand the sentiment.

I am a 28-year-old, married, Catholic professional, financially putting my husband through law school. I have been quite successful professionally for my age, and it does not go unnoticed by my peers. My husband and I do not have any kids earthbound, and not for lack of trying. Our lives and family today look far from conventional.

By the Catholic culture we have built, especially in the United States, the next probable step for my husband and me is starting a family. So, why is God pouring out grace upon grace in my professional life and in my husband’s developing career and not in a more conventional, celebrated domestic path?

Through the Wasteland

By our common sense, we know that each of us has a unique and unrepeatable purpose. We know God is calling us into a life only we can lead. Yet the practice of obedience is not so simple, and even though there is grace and peace when we follow God’s will, it can be a lonely road.

We learn in Isaiah and later in the Gospel of John (1:23) that the highway for our God is in the wilderness. God intends to move us in radical ways through the wasteland before us, uncharted and sometimes unconventional.

God will lead each of us, in a defining way, through our own wasteland, and no wilderness will look the same. For some, it is navigating family life while balancing the demands of work. For others, it is relationships with peers and an inability to live out the faith in a way they may prefer. Others still may be called into a time of deep longing for the next chapter, with no end to that longing in sight.

We each have an idea as to how we want our lives to look down the road, but the way is never clear when we are led into the wilderness. This lack of clarity is frightening but necessary in order to create the highway for God to enter our hearts and our communities.

The way of the Lord is prepared in the wilderness. To follow God, we must take this detour at some time in our life.

Finding Grace

So, here I ask: If you find yourself in the wilderness, are you following God’s peace, even if your highway doesn’t look the same as your friends’ and peers’? If you find yourself in unrest, frantically clawing at your season of life, have you considered allowing God to lead you into the wilderness?

Some, like my husband and I, are called into the unconventional, whether we want to be there or not. In any case, we all require ears to hear the whisper of God and then hearts ready to act upon his will.

Do a quick inventory of your life’s current chapter: Where is the grace? Can you identify the grace in your own life and where God is asking you to step out in faith? Are you prepared to call out in the wasteland before you, knowing that at first, you may hear only the echoes of your own voice?

“From His fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace” (John 1:16).

Mindy Edgington is a fiery, Midwestern Catholic convert from St. Louis, Missouri. By day, Mindy works for a Catholic health care system in group purchasing and IT contracting. Outside of work, she is a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children in foster care, Bible study leader at her local parish, and avid reader who is proud of her library card. She now lives in Omaha, NE with her husband, Octavio, who is currently in law school at Creighton University. They're accompanied by their hound dog, Brody. You can follow her on Instagram @mindy.edgington.