Rodney Drury: The Unending path

There is a pathway that does not end and we are greatly blessed because it does not. It is the pathway of walking with the Lord. It goes on forever. It sojourns through deep valleys and ascends to high peaks, it wonders through everyday life and scurries across question and pain. In all the places it goes, it is always near the Lord. He cannot be separated from this pathway for He alone is the way.

I have spent much of my life seeking to go somewhere. God has longed for my maturity and contentment to travel with Him, no matter where He goes or where He rests. I often want to be like Peter and prove to the Lord my heart, to prove my will to love God by some great events, some great proclamation. In my attempts to prove myself to the Lord, I often prove who I really am. I prove that I am yet greatly lacking in understanding, slow is patience, weak in love.

I have been lost a few times. A couple of these were in the woods. A few were on the highways or back roads. Being lost is emotional, but where you are lost is the greatest emotional factor for me. Being lost on the roads and highways is like living a busy life. We can deceive ourselves into thinking we are progressing or advancing because we can see so much happening around us. By the fact that we are moving, we think, or pretend to believe, we are getting somewhere. This feeling may not be shared by others with us unless our deception is overshadowing them too.

When we are lost in the woods, the wilderness, it is much different. Not knowing which way to go is in the forefront. It doesn't take long to awaken your heart and emotions to the great need for direction. You are not happy to just keep going, but long to know you are going in the right direction. I have been in the woods during a "white out," a time when the snow is blowing so great you cannot see much beyond your next step. It gives "being lost" a whole new feel. I can still recall the caution I took with each step. How I longed for a sign, a sound, something to help me find my way.

Lately, the condition of my own heart, the fear in our nation and the anger in the church has produced in me this same since of lostness. There is not shortage of leaders yelling "I am over here" but few, very few, who know which way to go. By that I don't mean there are only a few telling us which way to go. There are just few who know what is the right pathway. One way leaders keep their position in times of distress is to keep the people moving. We can maintain the appearance of advancing if we can maintain the appearance of going somewhere. The present trouble is that God's people are getting tired. We are longing in our heart for more that movement. Many of us are longing for fellowship more than accomplishment.

On the unending pathway, I have found the Lord leading to a roadside park, a quite water or a hidden garden. Father God seems to mind little our emotions of being lost as long as we are within reach of His heart. Can you hear His heart? Listening is just as good as knowing, maybe better, when our knowledge is filled with self-love and pride. So I have discovered that God often leads me into a place of being lost, that I might find Him again, He gives me the grace of not knowing so that I may listen. He allows the positive emotions of desperation so that I might have a longing for Him. My comfort becomes, not my arrival, but my traveling companion.