The Pathfinder
“Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.”
Psalm 25:4
I like it when my friend Elizabeth invites me to her cabin in Colorado. Of course, being in the Rockies in the summer compared with being in Houston … Well, I’m sure most people would choose the mountains over the heat and humidity of southeast Texas!
Elizabeth and I like to hike. What I like about hiking with her is that I don’t have to figure out what trail we will tackle each day, how to get there and return and how much time is needed. Elizabeth has been going to this mountain cabin her entire adult life, and it is a summer getaway she inherited at marriage.
She knows every trail by heart: how early we need to get to our destination to beat the crowds and how much time is needed to return in time for a late lunch. She knows I need half of a day or more to get acclimated to the high altitude and when I am ready for steeper or longer paths up the mountains. In essence, Elizabeth gives me a real vacation … a vacation from planning and preparing my daily activities. All I must do each day is fill up my water bottle, slip a protein bar in my pocket and show up!
Why is it that I still need to plan the day-to-day details of my life? Why is it that I seem to need to know where I’m going in the long trajectory of my life … or at least the next few weeks? Why do I expend so much time and energy making sure I’m ready for what lies ahead?
It seems that I am still learning the ways of the Lord. Trusting in the Lord is a life-long lesson, but if I look back at the long trajectory of my life, I see incremental, baby steps taken in trust even when the path forward is not so easily identifiable. As I immerse myself in prayer and Scripture reading and the life of the Church, I learn increasingly about the ways of God. And I would like to think I’m learning to trust, able to let loose some control over my life.
Yes, of course, there is some planning required in life … making sure I have enough funds to meet my financial obligations quickly comes to mind! Yet, I wonder what life would look like if I practiced more and more just “showing up” and trusting that I am enough, enough for what is needed that day as God continues to show me His paths, His ways of being in this world.
How about you? How does God teach you of His ways, His path?
