Not quite right
One day I was invited to a friends new house for lunch. Her home was out in the country about 12 miles or so from my home so she kindly provided me with some directions. Now I’m generally pretty good with directions and whatnot, so I committed them to memory and ticked each landmark off as I passed it, rather chuffed when I found myself turning onto her road. The final instruction was to turn into a pot hole filled lane on the left hand side, so I took the first left onto a rugged country track that was indeed rather pot hole-y.
I drove along cautiously thinking to myself that my dear friend had underestimated the pot holes somewhat, as there were a few that resembled small lakes, but remembering that my friend drives a Land Rover! As I progressed on down the lane I saw my friends house on up the road. Well we will call it a road. By this point it was more like a swamp. Now as I’m sure you can imagine I was starting to question if in fact this was the way my friend had intended me to come and if really she realised the off road capabilities of a sporty estate car weren’t quite the same as her landy. Suddenly it became clear.
I was driving into a field.
The time had come. I phoned and asked my friend exactly how to get from the back of her house into her yard.
“How on earth are you behind my house?” She exclaimed as I started to laugh. Apparently as I turned onto her road there was an immediate left turn I had not seen! So here I was driving on a farmers lane parallel to the very road on which I should have been travelling.
Our faith can be like that sometimes, can’t it? We plough on ahead through things that drag us down, and often we ignore that little feeling that something isn’t quite right. I had that feeling this day that maybe I might not have been on the right road, but my stubbornness saw me forging ahead. If I had phoned my friend for guidance when I first doubted my path, I would have saved myself a journey in which I was at real risk of becoming stuck and needing rescued. As it was I was lucky to escape with only an incredibly muddy car.
Again, when we stray from our paths in faith we can find ourselves muddied, bogged down with the weight and the dirt of the world upon our souls.
Thankfully I was able to get help from my friend. I have another friend who helps me greatly, each and every day. I can talk to him any time, anywhere and though I may not get as clear a response as I do from a friend on the other end of the phone, somehow I always feel His presence, His guidance and His love.
Even when we are following the best of directions, we can still get lost. Sometimes we don’t even realise we are lost until we are in the thick of it or the road gets difficult. All we have to do is ask for help.
Oh, and the best part? He can wash away all the mud from our souls from when we get lost!
As for my car, well luckily I had my husband to wash away that mud!
