Several days after the initial sleet highlighted the path, the path is now a treacherous skating rink. It’s extremely tempting to create a new path off to the side. After all, the snow has melted everywhere except where I’ve walked, packing it down into ice.
I couldn’t help but think of the implications:
First of all, it takes perseverance to stay on the path. I have to be self-motivated to get on the path. To stay on the path requires even more commitment. I couldn’t help but think of the old saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Several verses also popped into my mind: “Fight the good fight . . .” “Leaving those things which are behind, I press forward to the goal . . .”
Secondly, it’s not the path which is causing the difficulty. It’s the adversity on the path which is causing the problem. The path is there, underneath all the ice. Sometimes it’s like that for us as Christians too: we want to walk the path God has laid out before us, but when we do, adversity (carnal nature, society, Satan) strikes, making the path treacherous.
There’s an enticement to go my own way, to get off the path and forge a new one. Walking around the pond, that’s no big deal. There’s nothing sacred about the path. But walking on the path God has decreed is another thing altogether. God designed the path, and I don’t have the right to modify it - even a little. Not if I want to be in His perfect will.
As I slipped and skated around the pond this morning, thinking about the path, something else occurred to me: it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. As soon as the ice melts, it’s going to be mud. Then it’s really going to be fun.
I couldn’t help but think of the implications:
First of all, it takes perseverance to stay on the path. I have to be self-motivated to get on the path. To stay on the path requires even more commitment. I couldn’t help but think of the old saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Several verses also popped into my mind: “Fight the good fight . . .” “Leaving those things which are behind, I press forward to the goal . . .”
Secondly, it’s not the path which is causing the difficulty. It’s the adversity on the path which is causing the problem. The path is there, underneath all the ice. Sometimes it’s like that for us as Christians too: we want to walk the path God has laid out before us, but when we do, adversity (carnal nature, society, Satan) strikes, making the path treacherous.
There’s an enticement to go my own way, to get off the path and forge a new one. Walking around the pond, that’s no big deal. There’s nothing sacred about the path. But walking on the path God has decreed is another thing altogether. God designed the path, and I don’t have the right to modify it - even a little. Not if I want to be in His perfect will.
As I slipped and skated around the pond this morning, thinking about the path, something else occurred to me: it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. As soon as the ice melts, it’s going to be mud. Then it’s really going to be fun.
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