The fork in the road. We all face it. With temptation. With busyness. With tragedy. With our priorities and values .......... and maybe even, much more. Another mother’s child died. Suddenly. Horrendously. A heart shredded and torn and stomped on by a thousand pounding hoofs. A family disrupted, permanently. ....... Careless words. Misunderstanding. Inappropriate behaviors. A relationship bruised, battered, and tottering. ........ Calendar squares already full. And more demands and expectations are scribbled in and the busyness escalates still more. Quietness is an unknown concept. Irritability and frustration are much more likely. ...... We sink into the mire of the hurt, the disappointment, the brokenness, the cloud that engulfs us as we cry out for something much different. The fork in the road is there. Sometimes we don’t see the fork very quickly and sometimes our inability to see is very understandable. Sometimes we must wait for God’s light to permeate the darkness, somehow, some way, and let His light cast a glimmer on the choice that is ours. The fork in the road. One lets me walk with God. The other lets me walk away from Him. One brings possibility to an impossible journey. The other brings a deepening distortion, an emptiness with nothing to quench it. Two pathways. And God is the gentle Father who never forces my choice, but He offers, and the choice is mine.
I have always known about roads, and forks, and choices, but I heard it powerfully explained at a conference with other moms, each of whom had suffered the loss of a child. It’s hard. It’s complicated. It’s difficult. It’s not fair. It’s the wrong timing. The questions taunt and the doubts want to eat away at the fabric of our faith. But God stands at that fork in the road and He offers Himself, His ways, His provision and resources. His arms long to embrace, to uphold, to carry. Will “it” all go away? Can I avoid the journey life, or death, has placed me on? No, the journey is still ours. But, God offers Himself. And there is something else that has echoed over and over again the last few years, it is not what happens to us that most impacts us, but what most impacts, is how we respond. With careless words, misunderstanding, and inappropriate behaviors from another, how will I respond? Will I choose a godly way that walks with God and offers forgiveness and reconciliation and working through rather than the retaliation that may well be “deserved”? In the midst of crazy busyness, will I pause and ask for God’s help to see the important over the insistent, will I focus on keeping my thoughts focused on Him even when my hands are engaged and my feet are running? Will I learn that sometimes it is okay to say, “no”? God offers Himself. He offers His way, His provision, His resources. Sometimes we need to look or dig or think or ask a friend to help us find God’s way, but God is there, and He wants to be there for me, and for you. The choice is ours.
Keep me safe, O God, for I have come to you for refuge...... I will bless the Lord who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me. I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety.......... You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence ..........
– Bev
(Related Bible reading: Psalm 16:1-11)
