The Path Before Us

Nisa, Turkmenistan 

 

Proverbs 23:19 NIV

"Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path."

At dinner tonight lines from Robert Frost’s poem, "The Road Not Taken" wafted through my mind:

  

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

My choices in life have made all the difference. (sigh)

I left Cincinnati to study English in Kentucky, where I also learned about tobacco and dairy farming, coal mining, and the rich story-telling and musical traditions of the culture.

I moved to Coastal Georgia, where I learned about commercial shrimping, the fragile co-existence between development and the ecosystem of this area, and early American history not covered in my school textbooks.

I taught students who were direct descendants of slaves. They lived on a barrier island off the coast and took a 45 minute ferry boat ride to the coast and then a 30 minute school bus ride to school. They repeated this process to get home.

  

My path has veered off in directions I never would have anticipated as a child planning my future.

A divorce, a domestic kidnapping, a near fatal car accident, health issues—these are some obstacles I have faced with God’s help.

Usually there is no advanced warning for the next detour approaching on the road ahead of us. However, God can provide us with wisdom to discern how to proceed on our paths.  We need to find our paths and get on them.

Pray for wisdom and listen to your hearts, where God speaks to us and leads us to a deeper relationship with Him

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Dear Lord, help us hear your voice as it leads us, so we stay on the path you want us on.