The Winding Path

“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; 
 I will turn the darkness into light before them
 and make the rough places smooth.” (Isaiah 42:16 NIV)

Have you ever noticed on college campuses or in public parks, worn paths taking a more direct route than the sidewalks laid out by landscape architects allow.  There is beauty in a winding path, but many people prefer to get where they are going as quick and conveniently as possible. So no matter how beautiful the winding paths are, many people will still make their own, more direct ones.  

Life following the Lord is very much a winding path.  If we want things in our lives to become clear or to work out quickly, we will probably be disappointed on a fairly frequent basis.  And that disappointment can lead to impatience.  We end up making our own path.  I thought, when I was in college, that I would be married by my late 20’s.  Tired of being single as I moved into my 30’s, I began my own path.  I married a woman I should have never married and experienced years of upheaval in my life until she left me seven years later.  I had grown impatient and chose to get off the winding path in order to create a more direct one.  

Recently, one of my former students told of the path she and her husband have been on since they graduated from college.  They have both struggled with a lot of health issues, as well as the inability to get pregnant.  It has been a challenge for them to remain patient and to stay on the path the Lord has laid out for them, but they have remained faithful. Not long ago, they learned they are going to have the baby they have longed for.  

The Lord tells us through Isaiah that the paths onto which He leads us will be unfamiliar and perhaps not what we expect.  But the key point is it is the Lord leading us; thus, we are in excellent hands.  Though the path may be winding and less direct, it can be a beautiful walk if we just trust the Lord and not our own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)

Today, if you are not exactly content with the path you are on, be patient and resist the temptation of creating your own, seemingly more direct, path.  While you may think you will get there faster, you will miss what the Lord has for you along the way, and you may find disappointment at where you end up.  Faster and more direct is not necessarily better for us in the long run.

© Jim Musser 2014