I have rarely been lost. My love for hiking goes back to my youth - a love that I introduced to my family as I lead them across steep crags, high above foaming beaches, deep river gorges and wild places. Yet despite a great sense of direction I recently got lost within a mile of my holiday home.
I loved to go walking at night to pray and meditate, but one night I took a wrong turn. I wasn't worried, initially anyway, because I trusted my sense of direction, but all the roads were cresent-shaped, so whenever I trusted my instincts and headed off in one direction I ended up where I least expected to. After a few hours of plodding around I realised I was lost, despite the presence of normally reliable reference points.
So I prayed for direction. Just then I felt a tug in my heart and looking down I saw the name plate of the house in front of me. It read, "Small beginnings".
After two years of deep turmoil in my life, I understood the relevance of what God was saying. I was lost within a mile from home, just as lost as I had become within the proximity of friends, church, colleagues and other familiar surroundings. But the way back was not along the highway. I needed to stoop low and start at a small beginning, following the first principles of the rod and staff of God, out of the miry clay and back onto solid ground.
A security guard rode by and I waved him down to ask where the village was. "Round the next bend you will find the traffic lights ..." That was a good enough starting point. From there I followed the road that led back home. At night it looked so unfamiliar, but I knew it was the right road, so I stuck with it.
When we get lost in life, the right thing to do is not to carry on struggling, turning along new roads that get us more lost. We need to stop and find a small beginning, not a popular beginning, but a point of departure close to His feet. As we humble ourselves to His way, the mist will clear. Then we will follow the road less travelled, over unfamiliar ground, back to a place of restoration and wholeness.
Never despise a small beginning.
I loved to go walking at night to pray and meditate, but one night I took a wrong turn. I wasn't worried, initially anyway, because I trusted my sense of direction, but all the roads were cresent-shaped, so whenever I trusted my instincts and headed off in one direction I ended up where I least expected to. After a few hours of plodding around I realised I was lost, despite the presence of normally reliable reference points.
So I prayed for direction. Just then I felt a tug in my heart and looking down I saw the name plate of the house in front of me. It read, "Small beginnings".
After two years of deep turmoil in my life, I understood the relevance of what God was saying. I was lost within a mile from home, just as lost as I had become within the proximity of friends, church, colleagues and other familiar surroundings. But the way back was not along the highway. I needed to stoop low and start at a small beginning, following the first principles of the rod and staff of God, out of the miry clay and back onto solid ground.
A security guard rode by and I waved him down to ask where the village was. "Round the next bend you will find the traffic lights ..." That was a good enough starting point. From there I followed the road that led back home. At night it looked so unfamiliar, but I knew it was the right road, so I stuck with it.
When we get lost in life, the right thing to do is not to carry on struggling, turning along new roads that get us more lost. We need to stop and find a small beginning, not a popular beginning, but a point of departure close to His feet. As we humble ourselves to His way, the mist will clear. Then we will follow the road less travelled, over unfamiliar ground, back to a place of restoration and wholeness.
Never despise a small beginning.
(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com
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