Straight Paths

         Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

 

            I’m writing this after 6 pm the day before it will be available to read. It’s been a busy day. I helped set things up for the Mission Committee’s Yard Sale, got the ingredients I still needed to make scones for the bake sale part of it, made the scones, walked the dog 4 times, did a little housecleaning, and spent a good chunk of that time trying to figure out what Bible passage to write about. Someone shared this passage  with no idea what I was searching for, and it sparked an idea.

            It's not unlike the idea I’ve shared before that it seems to take forever when you don’t know the path. If you have landmarks or benchmarks, you feel like you’re making progress. Walking through your life, it sometimes seems as if you’re wandering in circles or that the path branches off as soon as you lose sight of the last turn. Even your detours have detours.

            As I reflect on my life, all the twists and turns disappear. There are places where I could have turned another way and where it almost looks like a knot, but even the knots are part of the straight path. And I’m with you when you say, “Yeah, but that’s looking back.”

            However, over the past several weeks, I’ve been going to a bone builder’s workout. It focuses on light weight-lifting and balance. One of the last things we do is the “Drunk walk.” We walk around the circle of chairs (30ish), heel-toe-heel-toe, trying to maintain our balance. It’s not as easy as it sounds, even sober. But by putting one foot in front of the other, we walk in a line that is approximately straight even though it curves. It takes us back to our chairs. I’ve found that if I ignore my feet and focus on the line that marks the edges of the tiles at the other end of the room, my path is more stable, and my path is also straighter. When I reach that other end, I turn ninety degrees and follow the next line in the tiles, so I walk a rectangle rather than an oval or circle, but my path is straighter.

            When we are walking with Him and trusting Him, it’s like walking the “Drunk walk.” Even if you don’t want to use that image, walking still puts one foot in front of the other.  No matter which way He leads us, it’s always one step at a time and ultimately straight. When trying to do our own thing, we tend to plan out ten or a hundred steps and at least one alternate route and then wonder why we end up lost. 

    Lord, help us to remember to walk one step at a time and to trust You in each step so that You can direct our paths.