The Perfect Path?

When I was younger I believed that there was a perfect path that G-d had laid out for me. A single ideal reality that if I made the exact right decisions would bring me into the best possible fulfillment of G-d's will and purpose for my life. I thought that there was some wiggle room, but that if I messed up too much I would lose out on the ideal and follow a sub-optimal life, that while maybe still good was not all that it could have been.

As I have lived my life and seen opportunities come and go, some taken and some not I have adopted a different view however. I have seen that on any number of occasions, even when I have made a distinct effort to determine G-d's will He has not distinctly pointed out one direction above others. Which if there was in fact a "perfect" path you would think He would try to make it clear. I even had Him tell me to "pick one" when I was trying to decide which church to go to.

As I have thought about this it has begun to make more sense to me on a theological level as well. We were put here to have relationship with G-d. A major part of that is His endowment to us of free will. So it would stand to reason that beyond our ability to choose to love Him or not He would also give us the freedom in how we serve Him. I believe He allows us to express our free will and individuality by providing many ways to fully live out our purpose. He lets us choose. And in many cases I think the choice can include "big" things like who we marry, if/when/how many kids we have, where we live, and what vocational paths we take.

This has a had a real affect on me that has further strengthened my belief that this is true. The result (or "fruit" to use the Christianeze term) has been that I am more at peace when making decisions. I make significant effort to make the best decision possible of course, but the weight of "getting it perfectly right" is now mostly lifted off me. I can make choices even where I don't know which decision is best with confidence that G-d will honor my decision.