The Path I Never Planned

As I was working on today’s newsletter recently, I came across a video from a few years ago featuring Rip Esselstyn with PLANTSTRONG and a friend of mine, cardiologist ​Dr. Brian Asbill​ from Asheville, North Carolina.

I had seen the video before, but as I watched it again, I thought, I need to share this one. You will find it below in the next section.

It’s called “From Stents to Sweet Potatoes,” and it’s such an encouraging conversation, especially for ​anyone dealing with heart disease​. But watching Brian in that video got me thinking about something completely different. It got me thinking about how in the world I got here.

Dr. Asbill and I met about 10 years ago, and over the years we’ve had opportunities to collaborate on a few projects. He attended one of my Food for Life classes that I was teaching at a medical office in Asheville, and later he invited me to participate in one of his classes at Mission Memorial Hospital. Those were opportunities I never could have imagined years earlier. Because, believe it or not, this wasn’t my plan. Not even close.

I started my working life in Human Resources—although we called it Personnel back then, which probably tells you something about how long ago that was. Ha! Later, I worked as an office manager.

I certainly wasn’t teaching nutrition classes in hospitals. I wasn’t ​developing plant-based recipes​. I wasn’t creating a website. I wasn’t sending newsletters to tens of thousands of people. And I definitely wasn’t collaborating with cardiologists and other physicians. None of that was even on my radar.

Then my own health began to decline, and eventually I discovered a ​whole-food, plant-based diet​. What happened to my health ​changed the direction of my life​.

I felt so much better that I became passionate about sharing what I had learned with anyone who would listen. And one thing led to another. Then another. And another.

A class here. An introduction there. Someone sending an email. Someone asking me to participate in something. A door opening that I hadn’t even knocked on. And somewhere along the way, what began as simply trying to get myself healthy became something I never saw coming.

When I look back now, there are opportunities I’ve been given that I honestly can’t explain. There were rooms I had no credentials to get myself into. People I never would have expected to meet. Opportunities I couldn’t have created if I’d tried. Doors that really shouldn’t have opened. ​But they did​.

Have you ever looked back over your life and realized that the road behind you makes much more sense than it did while you were walking it? That’s what I see now.

At the time, I was simply taking the next step in front of me. I didn’t know where any of it was leading. But God did.

Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I’ve always loved that Scripture, but the older I get, the more I understand it. We spend so much time ​trying to figure out God’s plan​.

Where is this going? What am I supposed to do next? Why did this happen? How is this ever going to work out?

We want the map, but God often gives us the next step.

And sometimes it isn’t until years later that we turn around and realize those seemingly unrelated steps were forming a path all along.

That doesn’t mean every difficult thing that happens is something God caused. I certainly wouldn’t have chosen the ​health struggles that started this journey​. But I can look back now and see how God used them.

Something I would never have chosen became the very thing that redirected my life. And isn’t that so often how He works?

Maybe you’re in a season right now that doesn’t make much sense. Maybe something you planned isn’t working out. Maybe a door you desperately wanted to open has stayed firmly shut.

Or perhaps a completely unexpected door has cracked open, and you’re standing there wondering whether you should walk through it.

You don’t have to see the entire road. Sometimes you just have to faithfully take the next step.

Looking back over the last decade or so, I can see God’s fingerprints in places I couldn’t recognize them at the time. And that gives me confidence for the road ahead.

Because the same God who knew where all those unexpected turns were leading ​still knows where He’s taking me now​. And He knows where He’s taking you too.

We may not have the map. But thankfully, we know the One who does.

Be sure to read this article from Dr. Asbill, ​Cardiologist Reversing Heart Disease with Lifestyle Medicine​.

August 23, 2026 Morning Brew