Crossroads

Have you ever come to a crossroads and you weren't sure which way to go. With my sense of direction that has happened to me more than a few times. Sometimes the crossroads are more metaphorical than literal. Not long ago I stood at a crossroads in my life. It was extremely difficult to discern which way to go as two divergent paths lay at my feet. I hesitated for some time, unsure which path to choose.

I usually think of myself as a patient person. However, I don't like crossroads. I don't like ambiguity in my life. I like having a clear sense of direction. I like knowing what my schedule will be for the next day. That's the kind of predictability and, yes, I'll admit it, control I like!

So I've been thinking a great deal of what it must have been life for Jesus when he came to a crossroads in his life and chose, as Luke tells us: "Now when the time was almost come for Jesus to be received up [to heaven], He steadfastly and determinedly set his face to go to Jerusalem. (Luke 9:51, Amplified Bible) Jesus, in his divinity, must have know this was the only course that could fulfill the Divine purpose of his life. Yet Jesus the man with free will-like you and I-must have longed to run away from Jerusalem and the cruelty and pain that lay ahead for him there.

Jesus chose the self-less path, even as he struggled with is choice. That struggle was not finally resolved until the night he sweat blood and tears in the Garden of Gethsemane. yet his trust in his Heavenly Father was so great he could walk "determinedly" toward Jerusalem and the cross, though every fiber of his body wanted to run away.

I pray that you will be strong and courageous when next you stand at a crossroads in your life. May Christ's example inspire you as you take those first tentative and frightening steps into the unknown.

Choose the selfless path. Choose the path of trusting in the amazing grace of our awesome God. Choose the path that leads to light and LIFE!

Have a happy and joyous Easter!

Lean Into the Wind

A film shown at the Visitor Center at Badlands National Park includes one explorer’s advice. He says that one who really wants to experience the Badlands cannot be put off by the heat, the wind or the rattlesnakes. Rather than shunning the brightness of the sun, let it shine in your eye and on your back. Rather than running from the never-ending wind, lean into the wind, for only in this way can the Badlands be embraced in all their rugged beauty.

You can drive through the park, but from the safety of your car you will never experience the nuances of the other-worldly landscape. You will never know the awe and wonder I felt standing on a particular outcropping. Below me was a deeply shadowed canyon bordered by amber fields of the prairie. Around me a natural cathedral drew my eyes and my spirit, lifting them up and up toward the heavens. I knew I was standing on holy ground and wept simply for the beauty of it all.

Erosion is a powerful and destructive force. But erosion also creates and reveals the beauty that is the Badlands. Erosion eventually - in half-million years or so – will completely wear away this land. The landscape will be completely transformed, even as it has changed over time from tropical sea to prehistoric watering hole to a wonderland of desert sandcastles.

This all got me to thinking about the powerful and destructive forces in our own lives. We fight against them. We scream and cry. We blame God for not stopping them.

What if we could learn to lean into the winds of adversity? What if we quit running for shade when the heat of the moment became too uncomfortable?

What potential might we uncover? What beauty might be revealed in us?

Is it possible you cannot run from your “Badlands” experience, but rather you must embrace it and grow and become the beautiful and treasured person God has created you to be?

And when the work in you is complete and the grace of your beauty has been revealed all the world will look upon you and exclaim, “Look, there is one whose life lifts our eyes and our spirits toward God. There is one who points us to the Holy.”