In the Muck!

If you would have asked me a year ago where I would be in life....it would have been anywhere but here! Just one year ago I was in Fort Worth at Seminary and seemingly on the right path headed straight for ministry. I had so much fun last summer. I can tell you that I will never regret my seminary experience because of so many great people that I was able to fellowship with. My seminary friends you are dear to me and I'm thankful for you all. You have taught me so much and we sure did have a lot of fun. I'm also thankful for the support you still give me even though we are far away. I was thinking today after rereading my last posting about the road not taken and was reminded again of how God often works in my life. (And many other people I have talked to.) You see the thing about the road not taken is that it is not clearly paved. Yes, there are structural stabilities in that it will lead to somewhere and that eventually, over time, you will get to that somewhere. It is the same with life. You can choose the road that is clearly marked where the goal is easier to see and ever visual....or you can choose the path that holds the most surprises. In choosing to follow Christ, and yearning for the direction that God would have me to follow, I have chosen the road less traveled by and it will make the difference. I've often used the analogy of the Christian life as a maze. It seems that you are correctly headed in the right direction and reach a door only to find that the next step is to the right and down another corridor. If you weren't heading to the first door then you would never have found that corridor and the next step in solving the maze. It is the same with the road less traveled. I sort of imagine God with a machete, much like the one my dad got me from Saudi Arabia, waiting for me to come to the right place and then WACK, down go the pesky undergrowth that threatens your progress! Its rather exciting...at least most of the time it is. Sometimes you find yourself traveling through the muck and the mud that would never have existed on the well traveled road. Yet inevitably you find yourself in a place of utter amazement of the Creator. You learn to appreciate Him, the muck and mud, the horrid undergrowth, the twists and the turns, and the unpredictable path that tought you through the journey. I am truly thankful for the muck and the mud because you only know the bad after experiencing the good!