For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

1 Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭25‬

Following others gets a bad rap these days.

We’re taught to go our own way, follow our gut, carve our own unique path, and dangerously, even believe our own truth.

With an overwhelming insistence that everyone is entitled to their own version of life and reality, it’s no wonder that insanity is creeping into our collective subconsciousness.

What am I to do when going my own way wrecks my life?

What if it wrecks yours in the process?

Is society’s capacity for forgiveness greater than the sum of its members’ appetite for individuality?

At the end of the line, at the proverbial bottom of our selfishness and addiction, we’re sometimes lucky enough to have a choice—continue digging, usually to institutions or death or to try and live.

Living, we find, entails starting to stop. And we’ll usually try this on our own first.

Some can, but most need a shepherd to walk them out of the hell they are stuck at the bottom of.

In both cases, the shepherd begins as a human—whether it’s us or a friend. But we will always come to the end of mortal help when we need more.

And it’s no one’s fault; it’s how we were designed.

The best we can hope to do is point toward our heavenly Father. When we reach toward perfection and strive toward eternity, we begin to live fully in this life as we find the joy of following the path He set before us.

God, thanks for leading me back.