Hubby and I were walking this path.
To our right, across bushes, shrubbery, and piles of driftwood logs was the beach … as you can see here.
To our left were beach condos.
Hubby needed to stop for a moment and tie his shoes. As he bent down to tie his shoelaces, I looked ahead and noticed that the path “ended” not too far ahead. From my vantage point it was “totally obvious” that this path no longer continued parallel to the beach … but rather it turned to the left and headed back towards the condos and parking lots.
Oh that will not do. We don’t want to go to the parking lots. We want to walk along the beach.
As I’m pondering all these things, two young ladies in nice business-casual clothes pass us on the same path, going the same direction we were going. I’m right in the middle of coming up with a plan for how hubby and I can get over to the beach instead of following the path back towards the parking lots. Obviously, we will have to tramp through the bushes, shrubbery, and over the piles of driftwood logs.
Good thing we are in our hiking shoes. Those two young ladies in their nice business-casual clothes won’t be able to get over to the beach like us. They are wearing nice dress-flat shoes.
Hubby had finished tying his shoes by now and I announced that the path ended just up ahead and obviously led back towards the parking lots. We need to tramp through the bushes, shrubbery, and over piles of driftwood logs to get out onto the beach.
This announcement took hubby by surprise. He paused in a moment of dubious hesitation. Then he said, “Ok” … and off we went tramping through the bushes.
I’m used to tramping through my forest all the time. You just go wherever you need to go and don’t worry about it because you are wearing grubby garden clothes and grubby garden shoes. But now here we were acting like we were tramping through our forest, but we didn’t have grubby garden clothes on, and we didn’t have grubby garden shoes.
The bushes and shrubbery were full of prickly sticker bushes. Ow! The piles of driftwood logs were buried in amongst the prickly sticker bushes. It was rather difficult going as we picked our way across. Eventually we exited triumphantly onto the beach!
And … lo and behold! … there were the two young ladies in their nice business-casual clothes, with their nice dress-flat shoes … calmly strolling along the beach and chatting together like they had been up on the path.
What!??
How did they get down here?!?
There were stairs.
There were stairs from the path down to the beach.
Wow … I felt stupid! I asked hubby, “Did you know there were stairs?”
To which he replied, “Yes, I figured there were.”
When it comes to life itself, God asks us to trust him and follow the “path of life” he has given us to walk.
But we reach places along our “path of life” where it looks like the path God has given us to follow isn’t going the direction we think it needs to go.
From our vantage point, obviously the path God has asked us to follow is turning to go a direction we know we should not be going. We can’t see the “stairs” which will take us to the place we know God wants us to be.
God says: “Trust me … and follow the path.”
But just like I came up with a plan for how hubby and I could get over to the beach, since from my vantage point the path obviously “ended” … so too in the same way when it comes to following our “path of life” we come up with a plan for how to get to the place we know God wants us to be.
We deviate from the path God has us on … and we go tramping through the bushes, shrubbery, and over buried piles of driftwood logs (so to speak). The “shortcut” is sharp and prickly. Ow! The way is challenging. But at last, we arrive triumphant at the place we know we are supposed to be.
And lo and behold … we discover that God had “stairs” prepared and waiting for us all along. God had a way to get us where he wanted us to go … without us having to “help” him.
If we had trusted God and simply followed the path like he asked us to, we wouldn’t have had so much trouble getting where we need to be. We wouldn’t have had so many challenges and so much conflict.
We could have saved ourselves so much trouble if we would have just trusted and followed the path.
When it comes to life, we might know something is the will of God for us. Such as: changing jobs. We know we need to change jobs. But is it the right timing??
Trust God … and follow the path. Even though from our vantage point it obviously “looks” like it is ending up ahead. God has stairs waiting which we just can’t see right now. Trust … and follow the path.
Or … getting married. We might know this is the person God wants us to marry. But is it the right timing?? Trust God … and follow the path. Don’t go “tramping through the bushes and over buried piles of driftwood logs” to make things happen the way we want them to happen, in our own time and in our own strength. Trust … and follow the path.
Or … making a major move to another city. Trust … and follow the path.
Or … purchasing a house. Trust … and follow the path.
So many decisions in our life are like this. We might know what God wants us to do, but it might not be the right timing yet.
Don’t get impatient and go “tramping through the bushes” to get there on our own, via our own way … and in our own strength. It will only cause us unnecessary problems which could totally have been avoided.
Trust God … and follow the path.
