The weather was beautiful on Saturday and my daughter wanted to go hiking with the dog. For being 52 degrees in January with lots of sunshine, it was a great idea! We decided to go to Red Rock Canyon, a place that we haven’t hiked in at least 2 years. It was as cool as I had remembered with lots of contrasting red rocks jutting up amongst the pine trees.
At the crossroads on an unfamiliar path
Things were going great until we came to a crossroads I didn’t recognize. Because it had been awhile since we had hiked the trail, this part looked different. There seemed to be more path choices than I remembered. We wanted to go to the quarry–our usual trail–but I wasn’t sure which trail that was and I totally missed seeing the “Quarry Trail” signpost (even while looking at it AND the map.) We headed out on my best guess and as we kept hitting crossroads–nothing was looking familiar. So we kept choosing what we thought was the right way. At least we were going in general direction of where we wanted to get to.
An Impossible situation
Then, at some point on the hike, my daughter starts sharing her heart about what’s going on with her. What it came down to is she is getting ready to graduate from high school in 5 months and doesn’t know what she wants to do. She feels like things aren’t happening for her like they did for her older 2 siblings. She’s feeling overwhelmed and that she’s in an impossible situation. (Hmmm…this sounds very familiar. I think I know where she gets this…)
I told her we could start a brainstorming board with all the current facts and then write down some possible scenarios. Then we would commit to praying and journaling about them and see what God could do with her “impossible” situation.
Visual aid
As I was pondering her situation further in silence while I walked behind her (while also trying to figure out where in the world was the quarry!) I realized our hiking situation was a visual aid for her predicament. Her brother and sister had similar launching from home experiences, both getting a vehicle and an apprenticeship situation. To her, that was like us regularly hiking on the same trail. We knew the landmarks along the way so we knew we were on the right path. We knew generally how long it would take to walk the loop.
So today, like her not knowing what she was doing or where she was going, we found ourselves on a new and different path where we didn’t know what was coming. We were looking for a specific destination, but couldn’t quite figure out how to get there. We kept making the best choices hoping that we would get there at some point. There may or may not have been some eye rolling when I shared the parallel…
Enjoying the Journey
We kept hiking and after realizing we would get to the quarry eventually, we were able to enjoy the journey instead of focusing on the destination. Had we stayed on our “usual” trail, we would have never experienced the new beauty that was in a part of the park we had never seen before! We finally found the quarry, but we got to have a new adventure too.
That tension of needing to know the exact path to get somewhere can create stress–both on a hike and in real life. In this situation, there was no way we would have been lost forever if we kept taking wrong turns–the park isn’t that big! In my own life, there’s also the tension of, “what if I choose wrong?” or “what if I don’t do it right?” It made me realize there’s no way I would be lost forever if I took the wrong path, because my God IS that big!
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
Proverbs 16:9
Remembering back, we were forging a new trail when my oldest graduated and launched on her grand adventure. We didn’t know how everything was going to work out, but it did. My son’s path was generally similar with several rabbit trails added, unique to his journey. So my youngest’s perception of her sibling’s paths being the same isn’t really true. It just seems like it is because hers seems “impossible”. She just never had to do this before and it feels that way. We’re all on our unique trails that shouldn’t be compared to anyone else’s.
I wanted to go back to the car from the quarry the same way we “should” have gone in the first place so I would know what way to go next time. When we came upon the exact same crossroad sign that I had looked at an hour or so before that CLEARLY said Quarry Trail, I stared at it in disbelief. Why it didn’t register in my brain before, I have no idea. If I hadn’t been such a dingbat, we might have got there sooner and definitely more directly. But I think we experienced something cooler just because I was one.
God works things out for our good
And here’s some comforting words to leave you with. God works with our dingbat moments, our numb and depressed moments, even our defiant, “I want to do it MY way” ones when surrendered to his will.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
Happy Trails!
