The Path

Back in 2004, the country group Rascal Flatts released their album Feels Like Today.  One of their big hits from that album was Bless the Broken Road. Around the time the song came out I found myself recovering or at least attempting to recover from a failed romance.  I had had a crush on a girl for a couple years and my last effort to woo her had been rebuffed.  This song spoke to me.  I could resonate with the "broken road" imagery.  Every attempt at romance that I had pursued had only ended in my pain.  The road felt extremely broken. There seemed to be pitfalls and potholes all around.  Every time I tried to zig the road zagged a different direction.  Looking back on those days, it all seems fairly juvenile to me.  It felt extremely painful at the time, but those scars, those hurts shaped me.  The brokeness of the road had a direction just not one I could see at the time.  Now, I look back and I know that my starts and failures were for the best. I eventually found my wife, a woman who is all that I could ask for and more.  My road brought me to her and now we journey this path together. 

The Path or the road is a frequent idea in the Bible.  We are called to walk in the good way to ask for the ancient paths in Jeremiah.  Jesus tells us that narrow is the way that leads to life. Isaiah says that the path of the rigtheous is level. Hebrews tells us that those God loves he disciplines.  His discipline trains us for the journey.  I look back on my path of the broken road and see that God was making a level path for me.  The brokeness of my journey strengthened me.  It molded me and shaped me.  The path we walk shapes us.  The ancients understood life as a maze.  Each step in the maze was a step of faith with only enough light to see the step ahead.  These steps took faith to trust the one who made the maze.  That the Creator had a destination in mind.  A destination of good and not ill.  At times, my path has been painful and I anticipate those broken places will come again, but I trust that the one who knows my path is leading me towards good and not ill.  Each step brings me closer to my destination, the home he has prepared for me.  I will keep walking my broken road trusting that my paths will be made level and straight. 

"Trust in Yahweh with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3:5-6