Re-routing

We’ve had some unexpected and unpleasant news recently, which has caused some emotional upheaval, and will require some re-routing in how we move forward from this point .  In thinking about the fact that the path along which we thought God had directed us is now not an option, a word picture came to mind which I think is an excellent illustration of how this feels, and how we can view required changes of plans when we thought we had it figured out and things change drastically and abruptly.

When you are walking along a narrow mountain trail all the twists and turns may not be entirely visible,  but you can generally see fairly well at least the first few yards immediately in front of  you, and perhaps even, in the distance, the destination (or at least an intermediate destination) that you are aiming toward.

Suddenly there is a landslide ahead of  you and the narrow trail you were winding along is quite simply gone. You know the destination is still ahead of  you, yet to be reached, but you can’t get there from here – at least not the way you originally intended to go. Now you have to search about and either find or make an alternate trail to get from where you find yourself to the destination.

That trail you find or make may bring you back to your original trail further along the way, perhaps prior to achieving that intermediate destination, or perhaps you will end up going an entirely different path to your ultimate destination, completely bypassing the intermediate destination you had your sights on.

That is sometimes how our spiritual and/or life journey can be as we do our best to follow God’s direction. Sometimes we misunderstand, and God didn’t tell us to go this way at all. He may eventually choose to create an insurmountable obstacle to get us back to where He wants us (He could just re-route us as we go too, but that isn’t the topic of this illustration.). Sometimes Satan creates that obstacle, to get us off track, and his obstacles can be insurmountable too – at least in the short term, if there are enough allies and circumstances cooperating with him in a particular situation.

Either way, we have to re-route to move beyond that obstacle. God’s  ultimate will  eventually WILL be done, but God’s circumstantial will may come into play to get us through/past obstacles or situations that have been thrown up to thwart our intended path, for the immediate future. Sometimes that can mean that the intermediate goal we were working toward, our plan of the moment (perhaps even one we have been working toward for some time), has to be surrendered completely in order to get to the ultimate goal God has for us, whether that be a particular task, an anticipated direction or path, or a lesson to be learned.

Alternatively, the intermediate goal may still be accessible, just by a different short term route, but we may not be able to tell which will be the true state of affairs until we are well along our re-routed journey. Either the not knowing, or surrendering something we have been working toward, or both, can be difficult to deal with.

We find ourselves in that type of situation at the moment.  The path we had planned, and believe we were being obedient in, is no longer an option, due to circumstances outside our control.  So now we are seeking a new path, and only have a limited time in which action must be taken.  We are seeking God’s favor and direction in revealing the new path to us, and if you feel led to intercede for this on our behalf, we thank you in advance for that blessing.  God is in control and we know He will show us the way and provide for us, but right now we are a bit befuddled, and in need of both comfort and clarity.

Blessings be upon you in your own times of re-routing, as He is and will be with us in ours.

Kathy