from the archives: direction

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As it has happened before, my three-years-ago commentary is eerily fitting to the thoughts I have today. As such: a re-posting of some thoughts on forest pathways and the faith that leads us through them.

Feb 7, 2008

I am learning that direction is not necessarily about an ending place, but rather, it's about where we're looking while we walk the Journey. Who cares where we're going? Wherever we end up, we got there by taking steps; one foot in front of the other and one heartbeat at a time. Steps taken with hesitation are still steps forward; and Faith is still the hand that steadies us as we go. As this mysterious ending place continues to elude and evade us, we are still asked to be ready and to travel anyway.

This is easy to write, but harder to see; the lighting shifts as the answers around us begin to fade into questions. When the only thing we know is that there are two roads equally accessible, and two different patterns that beat in the same sweet heart...what next? What do we do when everything we have known is suddenly replaced with dangling carrots, and this 'blessed assurance' evades us just as quickly as this road we're on?

I guess I don't really know that part yet. I know that pain still hurts and questions still go unanswered, just as surely as I know that My God will achieve his purpose in everything (or do I really know this?). There are no empty words with God, no empty promises, no pointless ventures. But there is suspense, and patience-cultivating, and tiny glimpses. There's the please-just-tell-me's, the i-don't-know-yet's, and the Journey. There is always the Journey.

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