Don't Look Back

I'm blessed to live near Lake Ontario. It's really quite beautiful, regardless of the season. Although I occasionally enjoy a trip to the well-kept sandy life-guarded beaches, my favorite way to visit the lake is a wilder walk along its shore.

At the end of the road I grew up on, there's a muddy lot, surrounded by trees and shrubs and weeds that are protected by concrete blocks that prevent cars from driving into the brush. I'll take my grandchildren there several times a year. We climb over the concrete blocks and find a path that winds its way through the wilderness.

There's an obvious dirt road that is parallel to the lakeshore, with smaller narrow trails that forge through the bushes to the water. Some of these trails lead to a rocky coast. Some of them to a breakwall, others to a sandy beach - untouched - undamaged. It's a really lovely way to spend a few hours enjoying God's world.

On occasion, we will take one of those little trails, and then when it's time to leave, when we turn around, it seems the path has disappeared. For some reason, it's visible from one direction, and not from the other. Maybe it's the way the branches are pushed when we walk through, maybe it was simply a trail that deer followed, too narrow for us to see clearly.

Whatever the reason - when we turn to take the same route we came on, it's often not there and we have to find another way.

I think there's a message there......

So often I think we tend to stay on a path where we feel safe, unchallenged, untested.  It's intimidating to think about making a new way - regardless of what position we are in. Maybe it's a new relationship, maybe it's a new lifestyle change for the sake of our health, maybe it's a new career choice...... the thought of leaving what we know and treading into the unknown is scary.

But that is the moment when we learn what we are really capable of. It's when we pull upon our internal resources - some we never knew were there at all - and put them into action. I believe God has given us what we need. We just don't often use all the gifts we have at our disposal. What stops us? Maybe fear, maybe doubt, maybe insecurity.  (Oh no, what will people say?) I've felt those things too. But in the moments when I'm thrust into the unknown, face the challenge, and then come out on the other side - the feeling is indescribable!

I hope we all have an opportunity to take a chance.... to change our direction, to change our plans, to change our minds.... if what we see ahead could be a better way......and let's not look back for that old path.