The Ancient Ways

All of us lose our way at one time or another.  Actually, it happens more than one time, but more times than we really want to remember.  The God we declare to be good suddenly seems distant and disinterested.  What we experience instead of nearness is more like a deep chasm between ourselves and Him, and struggle as we might, we still feel the separation instead of the nearness.  We experience such moments as times for abandoning our faith, or declaring ourselves too far off the path of faith to ever return.   

There is a word hidden in the long chapters of Jeremiah which can guide us from where we are to where our heart longs to be.  It is found in the sixth chapter, the sixteenth verse.  It has become a favorite of mine in recent years and has served as a signpost when I have lost my way.  "Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies, and walk in it, and find rest for your souls."  This verse does not call us to retreat and live in the past, or to make a shrine out of it, but to remember.  Memory is a powerful gift given to us by a gracious God.  The old ways are the proven ways.  It is by them that we have walked in faith.  It is good to remember them.

To look at the ways we have walked in the past is to know that there were times when we were led into a darkness that we could not understand, but those same ways always led us out into the light where God's love and presence was overwhelming.  The word from Jeremiah invites us to see that we sometimes stand at a crossroad where continuing as we are intersects with the way which the Spirit has used to nudge us forward.  The old way may seem empty and a way that seems to lead nowhere, but it is also the way which caused us to know God was walking with us.  When stumbling in the land of "know not where," it is good to remember the ancient ways.