Roads...

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

Robert Frost's well-known poem "The Road Not Taken" begins "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood..." And I often feel that I am there, standing, and trying to discern which path to follow. Sometimes I know where I need to go; I am surefooted and confident. Other times I am indecisive. I stumble down my best guess and lean on God's promise that says He will guide me always. And as I ponder this, I am taken aback {here's the part where I feebly attempt to put into words what is in my heart}.

God is always with me. My journey isn't a surprise to him. I've wandered down roads that I shouldn't have, yet God doesn't abandon me. He knows all the roads, since He goes before me. He will use them, anyway.

Last week, I told a friend that sometimes we have to walk to the end of an undesirable road to gain what we will need to finish the journey that God will call us to walk. And these are the places that stretch us. This is where we experience severe growing pains without which we would be stunted.

There have been times in my own life that I have lamented the road. I have felt utterly abandoned. I have played the martyr role all too well. Surely, I was the victim in all of this, right? But, God's thoughts and ways are not my own (hallelujah!). For it was struggling through these things that have caused my faith to grow. It was the reflecting back to what was birthed from the pain that helped it make sense (as much sense that can be had this side of heaven, anyway).

And this post is much different than I had planned, but this is it for now. So, stay tuned for Roads Part 2 =)

I have a baby shower and a birthday party to attend. A new birth, a new year....Newness...Merciful newness!

"Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.  It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is! I'm making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands." Isaiah 43:18-19