April 19, 2009

Blazing a new trail

Romans 11:34

“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”

All our lives we are taught not to take a step in the dark. We should not rush ahead when we don’t know what’s around the next bend. Some of us ignore that advice and race through life—relishing each next unexpected adventure. I am not one of those. I tend to step carefully and I tend to dread the unknown around the next bend—and sometimes even the known things that are in plain sight.

Yesterday God brought us to the end of a current trail. This one doesn’t appear to be a bend but a dead-end with a fork in the road. And the fork that we apparently must take heads off into the pitch blackness of the unknown. I described to a friend of mine recently that if it’s true that trouble comes in threes, my record must be stuck on two-and-a-half and repeating over and over again.

I’ve been through these times before. God has always been faithful. And yet I seem to continue to fear the future. My first reaction to unexpected change tends to be less than stellar. But I don’t think I'm alone in that.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

When Job got his bad news (much worse than mine, by the way), he responded with, “Today also my complaint is bitter; my hand is heavy on account of my groaning” (Job 2:2). Job was feeling sorry for himself. But he recovered later in the same chapter when in verse 10 he says, “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.”

And so I turn into the pitch black fork in the road, stretch my foot forward, and trust God to keep my foot on sure ground and not allow me to fall into the tar pits.

6 comments:

  1. You'll be in my prayers. May the Lord guide your path through the darkness.

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  2. Thank you, Anne. Your prayers are greatly appreciated.

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  3. It is not fun, and it is with fear and trepidation I dare even to breathe when put in a direction not of our choosing.

    Praying for you and yours.

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  4. Richard, you and your family will by in my prayers during this difficult time. Every thing you express is how we all feel, I believe, when something comes up and we hit an "end of the road" and are faced with the choice of which road to turn down next.

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  5. God bless you guys, Rich. Praying for you.

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  6. Thank you all. God is showing us the way, step by step. I'd like to see the whole highway, complete with signposts, but as long as each step is guided, we'll be okay.

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