Any Trail

¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴ Because^[a] narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Matthew 7:13-14

   The day before Thanksgiving I went for a hike in the foothills at one of my favorite spots. It was a beautiful day and I had a very refreshing time. On the way back out I came to a fork in the trail, both led back to the parking lot and I’d planned on taking the one on which I’d come in. The Lord told me to take the other trail and I agreed for it didn’t really matter as long as it got to the parking lot. I hadn’t walked very far down this trail when I could look ahead and see that the trail ahead was mud. When I was a kid I LOVED mud. I’d play for hours in it in the backyard.  I wouldn’t say I don’t like mud now, but I don’t like cleaning shoes. Oddly enough, I’d been talking to the Lord on this very hike about how I don’t like cleaning mud out of shoes. (-: Well there it was and I knew it was no mistake that I had taken this trail. So as I skirted around the muddy trail I began to ask the Lord. “What about the mud?” I continued down trail, still doing everything I could to avoid the muddy spots as I considered what mud could mean. When I was almost to the parking lot I laughed to myself and said, “You know, maybe next time I should just walk right in the mud, then maybe the Lord wouldn’t have me go down the muddy trails!” The words had hardly left my mouth when this reply came:  If you are willing to walk in the mud. There isn’t any trail you couldn’t go down.

   At work, when a job is hard and slow, we’ve always said, “This jobs like walkin’ through the mud.” What if we were willing to walk through the mud?

   While decorating for Christmas the other day, a song came on that said: How many kings step down from their thrones? How many lords have abandoned their homes? How many greats have become the least for me? And how many gods have poured out their hearts to romance a world that is torn all apart? How many fathers gave up their sons for me?

   After hearing it, I turned to Betsy and said, “That must be like walking through the mud.”

   On Black Friday, I got up at 5:30 am and went over to JoAnn’s to get in on their fleece sale. I figured not too many people would probably run to the fabric store on this day with so many other great deals going on. Wrong! I got a cart piled it high with cute prints and went to the cutting table to get a number. They were servicing number 15 and the lady handed me number 85! I looked down at it and thought, Oh no. I then shrugged it off and did something very unlike me; I went to a back corner of the store to wait. I’m a fast shopper. I’m famous for my 15 min. trips to Wal-mart. I don’t like dinging around, but on this day something was different. The day before I’d already decided I was going to go. I make fleece blanket for Project Linus, a group that gives blankets to any kid who has to stay overnight in the hospital. I’d already decided I was going to get these blankets and I’d agreed to get some for Lady as well, so the idea of leaving just never happened. I shopped around the best I could with my cart, talked to as many people as possible (to keep from boredom) and finally over 2 ½ hours later my number came up! The woman cut my fabric, I paid, and after 3 hrs of being in that store I emerge to the fresh air of the parking lot with a joy you couldn’t imagine. I’D SURVIVED!!! I’M GOING HOME!!!

   As I drove I casually said, “That was like walking through the mud.” Suddenly I remembered my hike. Later my mom said, I must have been shopping for someone else because I never would have waited 2 ½ hrs for something for myself, and she’s probably right.

   Mud isn’t sin. Jesus walked through the mud for us. Mud is something you walk through when you give your life away for someone else. People aren’t mud, but they are slow and hard, like some of the jobs we get at work. My parents have walked through the mud for me and my siblings. We’re not fast, we’re not practical, and we’ve proven to be very challenging, but I know my parents would say it’s worth it. Jesus would say it’s worth it, and I would say it’s worth it. I could find a dry and easy way to walk, but I would miss out. I would miss that moment, my number was called, the minute I breathed the air of freedom, and the indescribable joy of saying, “I’ve accomplished what I came to do, and now I’m going home! And because I was willing to walk through the mud, there are others who are going home with me.”

   Are you willing?

For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing,

2 Corinthians 8:3

*Song: How Many Kings By: Downhere

**Project Linus: http://projectlinus.org/