I read the following story recently:

Natan Sharansky was a Cold War prisoner, a refusenik of the old Soviet empire. He was a thorn in the Soviet’s side, and they did with him what they did so often-with mindless repetition, numbing frequency, icelike rigidity: put him in the Gulag and left him to rot.

But Sharansky had friends on the outside, lots of them, who wouldn’t shut up.  They created an international ruckus, and finally the Soviets decided it was easier to be rid of the man than to keep him.  The moment of his release came on a wintry day in February 1986.  The Soviets brought him into what was then Communist-controlled East Germany, to the Glienecke Bridge, which linked the two halves of Berlin.  On the eastern side stood Sharansky, in a huddle of Soviet officials.  On the west swarmed a massive crowd of press and friends and family, well-wishers and on-lookers.  Finally, to the cheers of everyone on the western bank, Sharansky was released.  He walked unaccompanied across the bridge.

But he did a strange thing.  He zigzagged.  He skipped, and dallied, and cantered, and danced.

He took his time.

He reached the other side to a thunderous welcome.  In a moment of lull, he explained himself: “The KGB told me to cross in a straight line, and you know I never make an agreement with the KGB.”

I love it!  Think about this: how many times have you (or I) been expected to do one thing, act a certain way, walk a certain path, because someone has an idea of what they think is best for us?  But to borrow a phrase from Thoreau- “you march to the beat of a different drummer.”  You hear this voice inside you (the Holy Spirit) who says, “Don’t just fall lockstep in with everyone else.  You follow Me and what I have mapped out for you.”   On this “I needed that” Monday moment I challenge you (and myself) to do just that this week. Follow the leading of the Spirit and not the expectations of everyone else.  I hope you will accept that challenge.

Do you have any thoughts?  Is there anything right now in your “pile of stuff” that is heading down the path of “I am doing this because people want me to?”  Break away and don’t agree with that (unless it is God’s unmistakable voice). I would like to hear your thoughts.