Path, rut, trail . . . which way next?
You may recall my previous post about the Merciless Great Red Masticator (MGRM). We hired its owner to fell half our forest last summer, which was ravaged by bark beetles.
Talk about thrashing and crashing! Insult and chaos. A long-loved landscape is now one I barely recognize.
Like American politics.
Where is the path?
For 25 years, I’ve walked, jogged, skied, and snow-shoed the same narrow path through woods, past the pond, then across the meadow. A rotation of dogs accompanied me. Plus a host of thoughts. Songs. Questions. And always, prayers.
For 25 years I kept faith with those eight-or-so wild acres. My trail hardened to beaten earth, eventually sunk two inches deep. The path shaped itself to my sole. And soul.
The MGRM obliterated my path, left behind land scored with wheel ruts. Barren dirt and broken boughs. Holes I call sprains-in-waiting.
Amid the new ugliness, I lost my bearings. Lost heart. Gave up on my walk.
For similar reasons I quit following debates and political news. I lost hope. Felt helpless. Pictured America circling the drain, waning like past civilizations.
And then the rain
Last week’s rain kept me indoors. A few stirring posts (written by others) reminded me what a redemptive, endlessly inventive God watches over our broken world.
Behind the scenes and amid toxic rhetoric and upheaval, greed, deceit, and ruinous lies, God keeps working . . . in and through people.
Was I going to knuckle under to dismay? Or renew my hope?
Meanwhile
Thanks to rain, a haze of tender green started sprouting out back. I can’t explain it, but the new grass has revealed sections of my former path, as if it’s still there, under the wreckage of all that has fallen, beckoning me through the shambles toward water, leading me toward wide skies and meadow.
Each day now, I align broken branches along sections I recognize. And Uncle Tanner, our dog, helps me tamp down the new stretches.
The land wants to thrive.
The rut that keeps on giving
My old prayer path is (partly) viable. And prayer still moves heaven, and earth—even the Everest of disillusionment. No matter who wins the elections.
Our God can work through anyone. (See Balaam and the ass: Numbers 22.)
We make a difference as we always have: one voice, one person, one act at a time. No matter who’s in the oval office. No matter what crises befall our nation.
My pastor, Eric Peterson, said that as believers in a world both suffused with God’s presence and ravaged by evil we’re called to embody “extreme love that speaks truth to terror.”
The path of faith we’ve signed up for may not be easy to find; it will be meaningful—no matter who runs roughshod over the land.
This is what the LORD says: Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ (Jeremiah 6: 16 NIV)
Each day’s election, every day’s choice
It’s not just how I vote this week, but how I hope. And what I elect to do, and believe, each day, for one person or many, one truthful, loving, act at a time.
What path is calling you?
Years ago I imagined the open brick wall of our Georgia carport crawling with clematis. I planted some, but they never bloomed–until I chopped them all back. It also appears that lilac seeds need fire to break their water-resistant coating in order to germinate. The landscape is looking pretty barren to many this week, but I’m certain we’ll find a new path and discover new beauty on the way. Thanks for the reminder, Laurie.
Sandra, that’s a good parallel. I too have been amazed by the wonder of pruning clematis. Didn’t know about lilac seeds. We used to have a lodgepole pine out back, a tree that needs high heat or fire before the cones open. I just asked my husband, the Tree Guy, about it. He says the word for those type of cones is serotinous . . . their opening is delayed due to environmental triggers. May new seeds as well as a new path be blazed! Thanks for giving me more images to hold. So encouraging!
Beautiful! I love the you express your heart taking us on a journey of personal revelation and leading us to the path of peace and hope. You are a gift to us.
Gena, thank you, my friend. And you are a gift to me. Wishing you peace and hope in abundance on your path today.
Loved the post. Loved to see Tanner, so happy to be back on the trail.
He’s exuberant to get out again, not rattled at all by the bushwhacking these days. But then he always did blaze his own trail. He’s standing hopefully by the door even as I type. 🙂 Off we go . . . wish you were here!
I’m thinking of what the forest ranger at Yellowstone said. These trees cannot last forever. What makes the forest new is the forest fires. The heat from the fire opens the pine cones to bring forth new life in new trees. To me that’s what hope looks like. God has a view that is so much longer and so much deeper than ours. He uses the scorched earth to bring life. And he uses fallen trees and ugly ruts and scars to bring life too. And because He loves us to much, He lets the grass peek out to give us renewed hop and see the promise that awaits.
Kathleen, thanks for this wisdom from your time in Yellowstone. Nature is such a window for me into spiritual mystery. Such a harbinger of hope.
And may I just say, on this election day, I am absolutely delighted by your phrase: “to give us renewed hop and see the promise that awaits.” Rather than bracing myself for election results, I will look for the moments to hop today! 🙂
Oh, Laurie….having walked that path with you out to the meadow, remembering your tale of the forthcoming treefelling I can only imagine what it’s like to have actually happened. What a change.
Your creative DNA always weaves the physical world to the invisible, unseen Kingdom and the one we walk in each day.
These lines made me pause, “It’s not just how I vote this week, but how I hope. And what I elect to do, and believe, each day, for one person or many, one truthful, loving, act at a time.”
How we hope indeed.
Jody, I think you were the last person to walk that path with me while it was still intact, which you did despite being in pain. That is a treasured memory. Your words today encourage me that I am getting the hang of kingdom sightings. Now to live that way . . . 🙂
Timely ,insightful ,most of all a sprig of new growth hope ..
Needed to hear this today …thanks Laurie
Larry, you’re welcome! And thank you for letting me know. I’m really grateful for the encouragement I’ve received from others these past weeks as I’d let disillusionment hold sway. Glad (and grateful) to offer “a sprig of new growth hope.”
This lovely reflection did indeed harmonize with Pastor Eric’s sermon yesterday. Our God can certainly do great things through the most unlikely or unlikeable folks. That is our hope, not in any candidate or office or government. You expressed it so elegantly. ( Sort of reminds me of my candidate of choice–Jill Stein 🙂 )
Gail, so good to see you in person yesterday and here, today. Thanks for being here, friend.
Nailed it!
Oh, that means the world coming from you. Thank you, friend. 🙂
Just the words, and the question, I needed today. Thank you.
Laura, I’m thanking God the post cohered and that it spoke to you, grateful you mentioned it.
I thought you were going to tell me there was a third option.
Well, there’s always Canada . . . 🙂