Stepping off the path


You're a stranger in a foreign land. No-one speaks your language and you don't speak theirs. All the buildings are white except for one. It's a red one. Your quest is to find that  one red building and enter in to it before the dangers of nightfall are upon you. It seems important to you that you find the red building.

You have already walked along the main street...the red building isn't there so now you decide to check out the side streets. You turn left at the next junction you come to... only to discover that each side street has many other streets and roads leading off it...not to mention the allies and footpaths. Some of the side roads bring you out on another side streets that have lead from the main street.

Pretty soon you are hopelessly lost and not at all sure that you have actually checked all the side streets and roads that lie behind you. You may have checked some twice while leaving others completely unexplored. Time is passing and soon it will be dark which will bring your search to an end leaving you exposed to...who knows what! Hurriedly you rush from one place to another, desperately seeking the red building...maybe you can find it before it is too dark. You are becoming more and more fatigued, running here, dashing there. Your heart races more from panic than exhaustion.

At last you have to stop to catch your breath and suddenly the red building doesn't seem quite so important any more. Now you have to decide which is the more important, reaching your goal or finding your way back to safety. You may continue with your search for a little longer but soon you will have to decide that - for your own safety - you have to retrace your steps.

Your haphazard journey may have taken you over a distance of five miles (or five years) but not knowing your way back, the return will at best, be another five...more likely to be six or seven. Your sad conclusion is that you will be caught in the darkness...alone.

You may have strayed from the safety of a path that you once knew so well. You may have been searching for something for many years but fortunately you don't have to find your way back to the point where you first strayed. All you have to do is STOP and turn around... And there you will see the Lord waiting for you to continue along His path.

As I rediscovered from a 5 Minute Praise #1522 this week, "Even though you are a thousand miles away, it's only one step back!"