The Road Taken

Thy word is a lamp to my feet

and a light to my path — Psalm 119:105

Picture yourself on a unfamiliar path on a very dark night with a storm brewing and the wind blowing and you are struggling to find your destination. All is uncertain.

This is an illustration of what life can often be like. None of us can be certain where the path of life leads.

I graduated from high school at the height of the Vietnam war. I was enrolled to enter college, but the government had begun drafting even those in college. I decided I would rather volunteer and choose the branch of service I would prefer to enter rather than let Uncle Sam choose for me. So I enlisted.

I did so thinking that once I had completed my obligation, I would return to the point in the path where I had had to detour and pick up where I had left off. I saw the decision as relatively minor, an inconvenience to be resolved.

As you might have guessed, I never returned to that path. Although I didn't realize it in the foolish days of my youth, it just isn't possible to return to an earlier time in the journey of life.

Decisions even less consequential than the one I just described can have a major influence on the direction of a life. Take the not-so-unrealistic example of someone simply going out for a loaf of bread, being involved in a car accident, and ending up paralyzed for life.

Extreme? Perhaps. But it serves to highlight just how dark it can be on the path of life. Nothing is certain.

Nothing is certain, that is, unless you are a child of God and trust in Him. 

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; 

and lean not unto thine own understanding. 

In all thy ways acknowledge him,

and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5,6)

I can (thankfully) no longer remember how fearful it is to walk through this world alone and without a Guide. The child of God knows that no matter what he or she encounters, the certainty of God's love removes all the uncertainty of life. 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, not powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)

• Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him — Job 13:15a