Journey Thoughts

There are times when our own journey gives us not understanding, but a measure of insight,  into the journey someone else must walk.  As we watch there is a part of us which wants to cry, "Watch out!" and, perhaps, we do, but it largely goes unheard by ears which are not yet ready to hear.  The truth is there are paths we all must walk alone.  Others may stand along the way, or be seen up there ahead of us, but it still remains the walk we must walk alone. What is happening in those moments of struggling to move forward when everything within us longs to cling to what is behind us is the creation of someone who has never before existed.  

As surely as we say good bye and turn lose of something or someone we thought to be necessary for life itself, we enter into a season of change.  It is most commonly known as a season of grief. It might also be called a season of becoming.  The seasons of becoming are often not welcomed seasons for there is nothing we count more dear to our existence than the status quo.  The status quo is where we know comfort.  It is where we know our way.  It is where we regard ourselves as being in control.  To suddenly be confronted with the lie which we have convinced ourselves to be true is an earthshaking and jolting moment.   We all have memories of places we did not want to leave, loved ones we wanted to keep close for a lifetime, and dreams we carried with us so long they lost their life.  What we also often remember are not moments of gently and willingly leaving, but somehow being thrust forward by some unexpected circumstance of life.  

While some might speak of such thrusting as a dynamic of life, others call and affirm as the pushing and prodding of the Holy Spirit.  His task is often to pry us loose from where we are, where we want to be, but also where we need to leave.  Life can never be about looking behind us at what has been left.  It is always about looking to see what God is unfolding before us. It may take some time.  We may not want to see, but God is patient and steadfast and can be counted on to take us down the road away from where we have been to where we are going.