Church camp was an important part of my life growing
up. From 1st grade through my
early twenties, I attended camp every summer, except maybe one. I went from being a camper to a counselor to
a teacher. It was the highlight of my
summers and had a major impact on my Christian growth through the years.
There was one simple activity one summer that shaped how I
viewed life from that point on. I don’t
think I realized the full impact of it at the time, but I knew it was important. Now 30 years later, it will serve as the starting
point and theme for this blog.
In class this particular summer, the teacher asked us to
make a timeline showing the highs and the lows of our life. Now as a young teenager, there wasn’t much to
put on the timeline – birth, starting school, becoming a Christian, dad losing
his job, moving to a new town, new church, new school. My timeline kind of looked like a strange EKG
readout, but then I started thinking about that line which represented my life. I don’t remember if the teacher asked us to
think about how we viewed life from birth to death or if I did that on my own,
but I began to consider life as a journey on a path from birth to eternity.
I remember actually drawing out a path on a piece of paper. At the bottom it started with “Birth” and at
the top it ended with “Heaven,” which is where I knew I would spend eternity as
a Christian. I had heard a lot about the
“straight and narrow” so the path was a fairly straight line from bottom to
top, but I added paths that went off to the left or right. One came to an abrupt end in a forest of
trees. One went through a desert and
stopped. Another one went over a
mountain and disappeared. A fourth one
wound around for a while and then joined back with the straight path. I remember thinking I wanted to stay on the
straight path, which was God’s plan for me.
I didn’t want to get lost in a forest of sin or face a mountain of
hardships or even take a detour that might make me miss a blessing from God before
I came back to the straight path.
As I have experienced life and matured as a Christian my
viewpoint about the path being straight and narrow has changed, but my
perspective of life being a journey on a path has not. One of my favorite verses is Jeremiah 29:11
(NKJV) “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts
of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” I want God’s best
for my life, but that doesn’t equate to a smooth and easy life on that straight
and narrow path. God says in Isaiah
41:10, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will
strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right
hand.” If life was easy, then God wouldn’t
need to tell me to not be dismayed or that he will strengthen me. I find it comforting to know that he has
thoughts about my life and is always with me regardless of where I am on my path. I still believe Jesus when he says in John
10:10b, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” I know I can put my life in God’s hands and
my journey will be better than I could ever imagine.
As I start this blog, I want to start at the beginning of
everyone’s faith journey. At some point,
we each must make the decision about where our destination will be for eternity.
On our own, we fall short of being able to make it to Heaven, but John 3:16
says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” According to Romans 10:9, “if you confess
with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead, you will be saved.” I want to encourage everyone to consider
whether they have made that decision and asked Jesus to be their Lord and
Savior. If not, let God know that you
recognize you are a sinner and that you believe Jesus gave his life as the
perfect sacrifice to cover your sins.
Ask him to take your sins and to become your Lord. Then we can begin
pursuing the Master’s path together.
In future posts, I would like to share with you how my
viewpoint of my path has changed and grown. I will also share about all the
different terrains I have walked through and there have been lots. I can’t say that I have handled each leg of
my journey in the best way, but I can say I have learned from them. I would love for you to check back for more
posts often and share them if you feel they are worth reading. I welcome your comments about your journey
along your path.
Until next time, keep pursuing the Master's path.
Image courtesy of Tuomas_Lehtinen at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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