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Long and Winding Road

                 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:  He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. (Psalm 37:5-6) 

Yesterday, I got distracted and lazy. I addressed the first phrase of the passage I chose. Today, let’s finish the task. One of the requirements of our committing ourselves to take the way that leads to Him is that we have to trust that the way leads to Him. It’s easy to head east with a GPS or when the sun is rising in the morning. It’s harder to head east in the dark with no GPS. It’s harder still if you don’t recognize any landmarks and the night sky is obscured by clouds, but that’s the way life is sometimes. It may be the way life is often. The last road sign or the last you could see, you were on a road that said it headed east, but there have been twists and turns. Did you miss an exit? Did you somehow get turned around when you stopped for gas? (It’s happened to me!) Who expected the interstate to turn into a game trail?

I’m listening to The Last of the Mohicans and it’s a great example of this. Four whites trusted a native to take them on a shortcut. They came upon another white and two natives who revealed the deceit of the first native. The new trio took the four to a hiding place, where they heard noises they’d never heard before within their cave hideout. It turned out the noises were only the horses of the four whites, and the reason for their noise was quickly dealt with, but the noise led hostile natives to them. Have we innocently trusted an enemy? Or, have we thought ourselves betrayed by a friend and have trusted a greater enemy? Where is the cavalry when we need it?

But no, we have seen no road signs, no exits. Even if the throughway has turned into a game tail filled with mudpuddles big enough to swallow a car – even though the way seems tough, if we are committed, we are committed. We must go on to the next cross-road or wait for morning. If we’re somehow on the wrong road, we must wait for our God Positioning System to tell us to turn right in a quarter mile or stay on this road. That’s what being committed means.

And when we are committed, and when we trust, God promises that we’ll see the sunrise, and while some of the road we can see seems to lead away from it, in the distance, the road resumes its eastward journey. What’s more, as you take the journey, the things that hinder, entangle, and besmirch you will be removed, so that you can take hold of your reward, and so that charges laid against you will be proven to be without merit. 

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