Going straight?

I must clarify from the start that this is not about living within the law or about sexuality.  It's about the direction of a journey.  When travelling, people usually prefer to go the quickest route possible.  That's why we have spent millions in making motorways so we can get from one place to another more directly.  We tunnel through mountains to save having to travel all the way around them.  We build bridges as a quicker way over waterways in order to cut the time of a journey.  And this is understandable.  Time is of the essence.  We just want to get to our destination without the hassle of actually travelling there.  


When people refer to 'the scenic route' it implies a rather round about way of getting to the same place and taking much longer to arrive.  The truth that we often miss is that it really is the scenic route.  The motorways, tunnels and bridges are for the most part just mile after mile of the same.  The scenic route however, possibly because of more twists and turns of the country roads, are usually more interesting.  We go through small villages and are able to refresh ourselves at some quaint country pub instead of the motorway service station.  There's usually less traffic also but as we know, this takes time and we don't always have the time to spare.  And that can seem a shame.


In comparison, when God does something, he takes great delight in not using straight lines.  Could you imagine a tree with straight branches and diamond-shaped leaves?  The only tree with straight branches I have seen is a one humans make of their family tree.  Or where is there a river that doesn't meander its way to the sea?  When we want to make a waterway we tend to dig straight down and as directly as possible between two points, using locks to move up or down along the stretch of the canal.  The twists and turns of nature is often breathtaking as we turn a corner and are confronted with some beauty of creation.  What a shame to miss that because we are in a hurry to reach our destination.  Many going on holiday try to think of the journey as part of the holiday and endeavour to find ways of enjoying it as such instead of getting over stressed by the actual travelling to get to the destination.


It's the same in life.  When I was younger, I had my future all planned out.  Then life happened!  Looking back it seems that my plans went right out of the window.  But if I'm honest I've had some wonderful experiences that I hadn't planned so I'm so glad that things didn't work out exactly as I thought they would or should.  We like things to go ahead as we plan without any complications or setbacks.  We have a goal and want to achieve it as soon as possible.  By being so intense on doing so we run the risk of missing an awful lot of wonderful experiences.  We are so focused on the end goal that we miss the 'now' moment.  When life has its twists and turns, I guess we should really think of it as God's way of doing things.  Doing things His way might mean living with the unexpected, having twists and turns, changing direction, travelling off the beaten track but so much more interesting and fulfilling.