Monday, August 16, 2010

Which Direction Are You Going?

     Have you driven in a tunnel? I love tunnels for some unknown reason. The longer they are the better and more fascinating I think they are! That is one of the reasons I like New York City: it is full of tunnels. One thing tunnels have in common is they have lights in them so you can see where you are going!
     Can you imagine what it would be like to drive through a long tunnel with no lights anywhere? It would be a very scary and an overwhelming fear factor. Imagine with me you are traveling through a long, pitch black tunnel. At a point of panic, you see a light ahead of you directing you through the challenge. All you have to do is follow the light. That seems pretty easy until the road forks and now you are faced with a decision. You can follow the light in a direction that leads to a place you really do not want to go. However, if you continue to follow the light, you know the light will stay with you and give you comfort and security. The other choice you have is to go the direction that leads to where you really want to go. However, the light is not going with you. You will have to travel alone and when you get through the tunnel you will find yourself still in darkness. What choice will you make?
     Now imagine that tunnel as one of life’s challenges. It seems as if you are going down a long deep tunnel, and you feel scared and overwhelmed and almost to a point of panic. Then you hear the voice of Jesus gently directing you through. You are relieved to follow . . . until the fork in the road! You and your flesh want to go one way; usually the easy way which will take you somewhere you want to go. But Jesus leads us the other way; usually what we think is the harder way. We only think it is harder because we have to leave our flesh behind. However, we know that if we want to follow Jesus, and not our flesh, we have to follow Him no matter where He leads. What choice are you going to make?
     I see this decision played out in life all the time. For example: You are in a hurtful position. You have to follow your anger and your hurt which will only take to the land of bitterness, or you lay aside your flesh and follow the Lord who will lead you to forgiveness and blessing. But do we really want to forgive?
     What tunnel are you in? Which direction are you going to go? With Jesus you will have light in your tunnel as long as you follow Him. Go another direction and you will experience true blackness. The great thing about following Jesus is that we do not have to wait for the light at the end of the tunnel . . . the Light is with us all the way through!

By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path.
Psalm 119:105

2 comments:

mrs. T said...

Forgiveness can be very hard sometimes, and becomes so much easier when we ask the Lord for help. Not being able to forgive also causes an anger inside that stays around and totally will run you ragged and eventually cause a lot of problems. I've had some family members that I thought I had forgiven but didn't. We can't do it on our own folks. When I asked the Lord to help me with this it was like a heavy load being lifted. I really feel sorry for them now as the load must be hard on them too but if they won't trust and ask for his help they will never feel the load lessen. He gave us eyes to see and a heart that can't be broken if we trust in him. He is the only one we can truly trust in.

Steph said...

You were right. This was a good post. Thanks.