Bushwacking, Backtracking and Bumbling

Life is not lived in a straight line.  While I have had a few moments in life that felt like I was walking on a well made trail, I've had many more that felt like I was hacking my way through brambles and tumbling down sharp hillsides screaming "as you wish".  Smooth trail or bush choked path, none are straight.  They follow the lay of the land and generally curve to avoid the impassable or dangerous.  We expect it while we're hiking, rock climbing or trail meandering.  Paths curve, the best route must be considered and thought out and sometimes you have to climb down to find the way up.      

I've been feeling that way recently.  Slightly lost, unsure and trying to convince myself that this couldn't possibly be the right way to go.    Life sometimes feels like that.  We are staring at a crossroads, unsure if which path to take.  So we pick a direction only to find pitfalls, quicksand and maybe some ROUS's.  Emotionally, these set backs or challenges feel like failure.  So we turn around and trudge back to the crossroads feeling defeated and disheartened.  It can paralyze us into curling up in the middle of the crossroads and stop moving to avoid making the wrong decision.  I've been doing the new Beth Moore Study "The Quest" which has been right where God wants me right now.  He knew that the adventure He has me on was going to come with a lot of curves but Beth Moore's study reminded me that Quests are full of question marks and that the very nature of their shape reminds us that the path will curve unexpectedly and require some leaps of faith to get to the point.  

Sometimes we have no choice but to scale the cliffs of insanity or brave the fire swamp. Sometimes we will stroll leisurely down a well trod path.  All paths will curve and most will fork.  Just don't freeze in fear of the unknown.  So what if that last fork didn't get you where you wanted to go.  You have a choice in how you view that truncated path.  Did you make the wrong choice or was the dead end part of the adventure?  God is always teaching us something.  No matter what your adventure brings you, you can think of it like an important plot twist. It's where God teaches the hero (that's you) something important.  So whether you use that to shrug off the feelings of failure and defeat or whether you use it to search your circumstances for the hidden gems and pieces of the puzzle, you can choose how you see the dead ends, pitfalls and strategic retreats.

Treasure maps are often full of loops, roundabouts and arcs before you reach the "X" which marks the spot.  Why do we forget that will be true in our own adventure.  If my hiking path bends and dips and forks, then why wouldn't my life's journey?  So, what are you going to see as an adventure today instead of a mistake?

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