One of my favorite things about the summer months is the opportunities that it allows for travel. My husband and I were reminiscing recently about our travel adventures. We like to plan ahead and have full agendas for each day of travel (sounds fun, right?). But our best plans sometimes take interesting turns. We have found that sometimes the real adventures are when you get off the beaten path, and we have managed to do that a few times mostly by accident.
One day when we were living in New York City, we rode the subway to the Bronx zoo. Based on our map (and our expert travel plans), it looked as though the subway would drop us off right by the entrance. But at the final stop we exited the subway and didn’t see the zoo anywhere in sight. We managed to get there by following a group of people who, based on their cameras and other gear, appeared to be going to the zoo as well. Thankfully, that’s exactly where they were going, and we found ourselves at the zoo entrance in no time.
We tried this same approach several years later when visiting London. We were trying to find a particular restaurant and took one of the famous double-decker buses to get there (public transportation isn’t always our friend on these trips!). When we got off the bus, we checked our map but in the end followed a group of people who I thought I heard talking about the restaurant. Unfortunately, this approach didn’t work to our advantage this time around. We ended up in a part of London that I didn’t really care to see and have no plans to visit on future trips. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t on the tourist list of spots to see while you are visiting from out of town. Thankfully, we weren’t too far off the path and found our way back to safer ground.
As I learned through our travels, who or what you follow determines where you end up. I think the Bible is right on (once again) when it refers to us as sheep that sometimes go astray. It is all too easy to wander off and follow after someone or something that we think will fill our hearts only to leave us unfulfilled and often times in a scary place. And sometimes we are just looking for a shortcut that will get us where we want to be more quickly (because we constantly struggle with patience!) and yet those short cuts can lead to dead-ends.
It is so comforting to remember that the Lord is our Shepherd. He truly wants to protect us and guide us along the right paths if we let Him. When we allow Christ to be the shepherd of our hearts, He promises that we will lack nothing. That He will refresh our souls and even give our hearts a chance to rest. And when we walk through the darkest of valleys in this life, He will never leave our side and provide His peace and comfort. And even through our sometimes winding path (because we don’t always allow Him to lead), we know that our destination will always be great as one day we will have an opportunity to meet our Savior face to face.
Proverbs 3:5-6 are some of my favorite verses in the Bible (probably because I struggle in the area of complete trust). I love this version from the Message Bible:
Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track.
My prayer is that we follow Christ. That we allow Him to daily guide our paths by spending time with Him in prayer and Bible study. That we are obedient to Him when He directs our steps. That we quit chasing after anything that pulls us in a different direction than what He is calling us to. That we trust Him even through the dark times. And that we rest in the security of His everlasting love.
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