Show Me Your Path - December 14
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 41, 52; PM Psalm 44; Isa. 8:16-9:1; 2 Pet. 1:1-11; Luke 22:39-53
Today’s Reflection
All this has come upon us; yet we have not forgotten you, nor have we betrayed your covenant. Our heart never turned back, nor did our footsteps stray from your path. –Psalm 44: 17-18
We humans tend to be very fearful of uncertainty. We have a fear of the unknown and of the future. We feel uncomfortable and afraid when we cannot see around the bend in the road. And yet, we are called to believe in a God who promises more than all we can ask or imagine. Jesus asks us to follow him, to step out in faith—though we do not know where following the path of Christ will lead us.
When I think of some of my favorite places to go hiking—like the Lake Beresford and Gemini Springs trails back in Florida, or McKinney Roughs out in Texas, or at Red Mountain here in Birmingham—I recall how some of what makes those trails most appealing to me are the curves. Seeing a bend in the trail up ahead, you wonder what may be around it—what beauties of nature will I experience next? Perhaps, as at Lake Beresford, I'll encounter a magnolia tree whose massive, fragrant white blooms I can smell even before I see the tree towering around the bend. Perhaps I'll encounter a wild boar and her babies up in a stand of trees as I come around the next curve in the path, as I once did at McKinney Roughs. Or maybe there will be a rattlesnake sunning itself in the trail, or some bicyclists coming quickly around the corner. We don’t know what exactly we will encounter—be it beautiful or dangerous—around the next bend. But if we choose to set out hiking on the trail, we accept that there will be hills and bends that we cannot see beyond—and we know that these grades and curves are what make the hike interesting and beautiful as well as risky.
Our God has given us his Spirit to abide in us and with us, so that we need not live in fear. We cannot see around the bend in the road. But at each bend we can choose to keep walking, believing that while we may not know what lies ahead, we will not walk there alone. God goes before us, and he has given us one another to walk with.
Last year, while I was re-reading Anne Lamott’s book, Help, Thanks, Wow, I read her reference to a famous ‘help’ prayer by the Trappist priest Thomas Merton. I looked up his prayer and was stopped in my tracks when I found myself and my own life circumstances reflected so clearly in someone else’s prayer. Maybe you, too, will see yourself and your life in it. And maybe you can imagine the ways that the people whose lives cross your path each day are reflected in it, too. So, in closing, I echo Merton’s prayer for us today:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
So, take courage—and may God’s spirit abide with you and guide you always along God’s path.
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
Recall a time when you felt lost. What did you do to re-orient yourself and get back on the right path? How are times such as this an effective metaphor for sticking to God’s path for you?
How does going through times of getting lost function to get you back on track?
Daily Challenge
Find time to go on a walk, run, or bicycle ride this week in a place that is unfamiliar to you. As you are navigating this new space, make a mental note of how you feel and what you would do to avoid getting lost now or next time.