The Interesting Path

In August of 2019, I was blessed to visit Rome, Italy. Being able to explore the city and see all of the ancient sites was a dream come true. You can literally walk down any street and find something magnificent to see. Trying to rank what my favorite sites were is a daunting task. The Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, Circus Maximus, etc. were all mind blowing in their own right. However, my favorite site was the masterpiece that is the Trevi Fountain (which is the picture that I used for this post). 

One of the interesting things about the Trevi Fountain is the route that you have to take to get to it. No matter where you start from, you will have to travel down a bunch of side streets in order to arrive at the fountain. As you are going, you have to start to wonder if you are going the right way. You would think that a place of that significance would be on a main road, but it’s not. You can being to hear the crowd when you get close to it, but you still can’t see it. Finally, after walking down another narrow street, you turn a corner and there it is. Just like that, you are staring at something that is truly spectacular. 

You would never assume, based on the path that you take to get there, that you are heading for something incredible. That is just like the life that God has planned for us. We would all like to walk with God down an easy street where everything makes sense. However, that’s not how things work. Our journey of faith leads us down what I like to call “the interesting path.” 

We all have an idea as to what the perfect life of faith would be like. We all make plans and assume what it is that God has in store for us. We have a pesky little habit of thinking that we know better than God and that he should fit his plans into our agenda. That’s not the case though. Think about Jeremiah 29:11 for a second. It’s one of the most famous verses.“’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” This is a verse that we use whenever we want to reassure ourselves during a hard time. Do you know what is going with Israel when God says this to them? They were about to be held captive by the Babylonians and exiled from their homeland. 

Everything wasn’t perfect immediately after God made the promise to take care of the Jews. In fact, God tells them in Jeremiah 29:10 that the exile will last for 70 years. This seems less reassuring. However, this exile led to rise of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, the rebuilding of the Temple, the return of the Jews back to faith in God and scripture, and, ultimately, the promise of a savior. I cannot imagine that the Jewish people would have laid that path out for themselves. Nevertheless, that path led them back to their faith. They found something spectacular at the end of their “interesting path.”

We all go down the “interesting path.” In fact, we’re all going down it as we speak. Things may not seem to be the way that we think they should be and that’s ok. God has made promises to us that he will take care of us. Keep walking down the path and seek God every step of the way. You never know when you’re going to turn that corner and finally see the something spectacular that God has in store for you. He’s got your good in his hands; trust that and keep going. I promise you, just as God has promised us, it will lead to something beautiful.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this. I appreciate it more than you can ever know! If you enjoyed what you read and found some encouragement, please like and share this post. I love you and, more importantly, God loves you!