When You Want An Easier Path to Walk

There are days.

Days when you feel like you just want to quit.  Life.

And you think, there must be something I'm missing.

Some secret to success, some plan of action that smooths out all bumps, that makes easy the hard, gritty of this life.

There must be.

So I ask Cathy, this mom of six with three that have flown her nest, she knows this struggle of homeschooling six kids and the messy of life.

I ask, "How?"

And her words full of grace and truth reply, "I have no words of wisdom for you.  It's hard.  Somethings in life you just have to go through."

Yes.

And I say, "My friend, those are words of wisdom.  They are."

Because sometimes in life, people can't give you directions to the easy path. 

Because sometimes there isn't one.

And it's only when you finally accept the path you're on, and that it just might be rocky, and your shoes might split open, bleeding toes and blistered heels, and when you accept that this is the path for your feet, you can stop looking for a way out and start looking for a way up...

And when you can just Trust. 

Trust that this path, hard though it may be, is the right one, the one He intended. 

Trust that it's not always going to be this hard, and even on the narrow path, the sun often shines.

Trust that His grace is enough.

And maybe trust that it's not in finding a way out of hard that equals success, but in the just going through it.

There is a word for this going through, they call it endurance.

But this endurance isn't about just making it through, it's about making us holy.

Because the bumps, they smooth us.

And the trials they make us more like Him.

He knows suffering.

And do we really want to be like our Savior?

And all this struggle makes us see grace as sufficient instead of stuff.

And Paul said it, "We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and  trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  Endurance produces character, and this character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will never lead to disappointment." Romans 5:3

So, make way, I'm headed for home and heaven.  And the How of this life?

Well, I'm trusting the Trail Guide, the One who made the map and the trail, and believing that all this hard, it's for His glory and for my good. 

And even when I can't see the around the next bend or where this path is leading, I can trust that ultimately it leads to home and if I just keep walking it, I'll get there. 

Because the Guide is with me and He'll never leave me until my feet are safely found where they belong, at home with Him.