God Can Make Crooked Paths Straight

Jessica Hernandez is one of those people you hear about sometimes….the child prodigy-turned highly successful business woman who fast-tracked her way through school and career to achieve outstanding success.  But, as with most of us, there were some hard life lessons learned along the way.  From an early age, she told us, “I thought I needed to impress God with how much good I could do.”  But when Jessica realized that conquering the next challenge was never enough to satisfy her, she fell instead into rebellion.  By the time she was 16 she was skipping school, breaking her curfews and getting into trouble.  By age 18 she was pregnant, and her dreams of going to Harvard law school were over.

She knew Jesus from an early age—her father was a pastor—but she had to learn what He truly meant to her. “Before we even reach out to Him, He’s working to reach out to us”, she said.  “That’s backwards from the way the world works.”  One night she surrendered her life completely to Him.  She prayed, “I’m sorry for trying to do this my own way.”  When she turned her life completely over to Him, He began to redeem the broken parts. 

Today she is married to the father of her little girl, and they have a second child as well.  Her husband gave his life to Christ and quit his job to stay home with the kids so she could go to law school.  She is now a partner in a prestigious law firm at the age of 29!  She told us, “In spite of all the mistakes I’ve made, God is using me.  I have opportunities to talk about God with lawyers, secretaries, senior partners…”

Jessica challenged us not to feel like God can’t use us because we’ve gone down a wrong path.  Realize that He still has a plan for us and His plan is better than we can imagine, or achieve on our own.  God can straighten any crooked path and redeem any failure.  Just ask Him to show us what He wants us to do. Then step out in faith and do it.