I regret having regulated my life upon my own plans, my plans of fidelity and Christian sanctification, and not simply upon the plan which the Savior unfolds before every one of us. I believe I shall be able to explain myself in a few words, and that every child of God will understand me.

We are prone to make to ourselves a certain ideal of the Christian life, of Christian activity, and of the Christian ministry, and to attach to this ideal certain plans and certain methods, in such a way that we are not contented if we do not attain to the realization of them; and thus it behooves us to make the best possible plans, and to seek for the best possible method of carrying them out. All this is well, but beneath it all there is a fault; it is the me, the hidden me, which is rooted at the bottom of the heart, and which is seen in all our best and purest works. Whereas that which I would do would be to take the plan of my life and of my daily conduct, not from my own ideas and sentiments, but from the commandments of God, in his inward witness, in the conduct of his spirit, and in the external directions which he gives to our lives.

We don’t have to make a road for ourselves; we just have to walk in one that God has made for us.