Life is a highway… So says the song.  And that can be really true.  We just glide along following the regular flow of traffic.  Once in a while we hit a bump, get a flat tire, sit in bad traffic, fight rush hour.  But that highway is safe.  Predictable.  Paved.  The road signs are obvious.  It takes very little effort or thought and lacks any creativity.  We just ride along fairly sure that we will get to our desired destination.  And life lacks excitement.  Meaning.  Purpose.  Boring…

Jesus called us to a new path.  He is calling us to join him – to step, in faith, from the freeway to his own secret path.  Romans 11:33 says, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his PATHS beyond tracing out!”  A path beyond our understanding, and yet he calls us to it.  David says in Psalm 25:4, “Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me YOUR PATHS; guide me in your truth and teach me…”  His paths escape our grasping.  And yet he calls us to walk it with him.  Not safe by human standards.  Not predictable.  Not the fastest way.  Not efficient, as we would look at it.  Not a freeway by any means.  A path that will require trust.  Patience.  A knowledge that the journey, and not just the destination, is the most exciting part of this adventure and risk.

It could be very easy to be afraid of this path that seems, somehow, so vague or arbitrary.  But is it really?  Or is it merely that because of the slower pace, we are able to take in more with each step along the way? Our focus becomes the daily thrill of the journey itself instead of only where we are heading.  We begin to notice the beauty that surrounds us on this walk.  Things we couldn’t see from the freeway.  Brilliant flowers of personal growth.  Rippling waters of newfound faith and trust.  Rugged rocks of learning from mistakes.  Songbirds singing of deepened love and understanding.  And the recognition of the grip of the hand of  the one who asked us to join him on this glorious path.

I am a sucker for kids and all they can teach us.  I just heard a story of a father who began taking his daughter on walks.  It was a special time for just the two of them.  One day, they came upon a new path.  A path usually ignored by passersby.  But there was something intriguing about it.  Mysterious.  Exciting.  And so the father offered the choice to his daughter.  “What do you think?” he asked.  Before the words were out of his mouth, his daughter was off to begin their new adventure. And this is where I smiled and wiped a tear at the same time.  She trusted him.  That he loved her, that he only wanted the best for her, and that this was a good path for her.  She knew her father and that if he said so, this would be  a special path for the two of them to share.

I want to be that child.  I want to walk that secret path every day.  I will trust.  I will walk.  And I will hold the hand of him who gave me such an amazing invitation.  Teach me your paths, O Lord….