“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets’ towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight play on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you — beyond that next turning of the Canyon walls.” Edward Abbey from Desert Solitaire
I do not know about you, but I bask in the words above. Perhaps it is my love of Creation that draws me to its unspoiled places — where Christ so often went to pray. It is the quiet solitude where heaven and earth seem to touch – thin places where one leaves the clamor and noise of our own world to hear the silence of God’s “still small voice.” It is that gentle, quiet voice that calms our spirits and provides a sense of peace. It is where He allows one to lie down in green pastures, where he leads one beside quiet waters, where one’s soul is refreshed.
Yet Scripture speaks of another path we are to follow – the straight path (Proverbs 3:6). “…in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” On the surface, those two paths may seem to be quite different, but here we must go to the deeper message. Following the straight path is to recognize and acknowledge God’s guidance and presence in every aspect of our lives allowing Him to lead us along a path that is clear and purposeful. It does not mean that your path will be straight, easy and smooth. We are to pray daily that he will “lead us not into temptation” and “He will deliver us from evil” as we follow our path in God’s Kingdom today.
As a Christ follower and lover of both God and His amazing and very good creation, I find both paths part of my life. Indeed, life does lead us along Edward Abbey’s path. It is not a safe path, but that path’s thin places are amazing – places where we sense touching God’s very presence. It is where others see the challenges we face and how well we face them. It is where our true light can shine in dark places. Let us pray that during the most challenging times along Abbey’s path that opportunities will arise to share with fellow travelers the true significance of life and walking with Christ – and help open their eyes to see and experience the grandeur of God’s Creation.
Our Prayer: Lord God, may the path we travel in your Kingdom contain amazing sunrises, sunsets, and rainbows. May its mountaintops be filled with grace and beauty. But most of all, may we honor you with our life and bless others who we pass along the way. Amen.
Thanks for listening.
— Joe Sheldon
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