Paths, Creeks, and Freezers

I wanted to take a couple minutes and share with you a couple things that have struck me in the last few days.

First, on Saturday morning I was sitting in my tree stand out back behind my house, honestly not really caring much if a deer came or not. I was watching this little chipmunk family who inhabits the space i use once in a while scurry back and forth through an old hollow log (actually wondering how someone seriously got Alvin and the Chipmunks from these little things and kinda wishing they would stand up on their hind legs and start singing...)gather nuts and im sure ration them for winter. I was watching the leaves fall, one by one - it was not very windy and it is a beautiful thing to watch the leave saunter their way to the ground. It was a nice morning.

As i looked around, i looked down the path - this is the direction that the deer usually come from, if they come, which is not usually. This time of year most all of the leaves have not yet fallen and so i can only see a little way down the path, especially from where i sit 15 or so feet in the air. It seemed the path was a place i could walk down - have actually, a lot of times, especially in the May mushroom hunting season. I could walk down a way, check things out, maybe turn left up the hill, or go right, off into some of the meadows down the way - they might be pretty this time of year. But, as i thought of the path, i thought of what i could do and where i could go - it was like the two thoughts jumped off each other - 1st the thought of the path and then right after, the thought of going and doing. The path became an example of my life - go and do, go and do, go and do - this is so much the way i live...

Then, as if drawn, i heard the gurgle of the south fork of the wildcat creek to my right - it is low right now - probably only about a foot where i sit and there is a little roughness to the water there - enough to make an occasional bubbly, gurgly, creek sound - i love it - music to my sometimes worn soul. Then, i remembered the path. But, the creek was not like the path. The creek just moved. It had no direction in particular it was trying to go, no choices to make, no initiatives to pursue - it was simply following along its course. And, before i could think about it, i longed to be more like the creek. I so wanted to not worry and fret about the choices of the paths or to find myself throwing all of my passion into simply going and doing - it seems that i get quite enough of that and it seems to lead me away from the REALLY important things in life. I wanted to be able to follow God in a creek-like way - to be so aware of where He wanted me to be, to be so filled with the noticing of Him and His ways that i could simply live life and follow the course He had plotted out for me - even though sometimes the water is gurgly and sometimes it is smooth - occasionally there is a major boulder in the way - if i could live with the creek banks of His love and guidance all the time, it seems that it would be ok...

Then, there was one more thing. This was today - now a lot of hours since i left the forest - and quite a different thing that struck me. We had our friend Stephanie over for dinner and we were all talking and somehow the packing of freezers came up. This is a longstanding joke at our house, because as wonderful a person as my wife is, she is not a good freezer packer. I was joking, as i often do, that if you pull something out of the freezer when Melissa has packed it, you might want to have steel toed boots on - which poses an issue when you are sitting out some meat for the next day and you have snuck downstairs in your underwear - because it is a little silly to be in steeltoes and undies - but ill leave that one alone for now. You see, Melissa packs the freeer with slope - and all the slope is pointing out of the freezer - to your toes!! So, be careful if you're in the freezer! Anyway, we were all laughing about this and one of the girls said that you have to be careful because sometimes you might pull one small thing out and then the whole freeze might fall on you - as if it was all balanced delicately on that one pack of bacon or something. Well, that set me thinking. Sometimes i feel like that freezer. I feel like i am just so unstable (i know this comes as a surprise to some of you) that if just one thing is moved, i will come tumbling down - all my confidence and self-esteem and everything else, all balanced on a pack-o-bacon!!! It makes me mad - i want so badly to be more stable, more consistent, more like so many people i know that nothing seems to ever ruffle them. I get frustrated with who God made me to be.

So, here's the thing: I know that i do not want to just live the ordinary American life - like the path - always going and doing - always choosing my own way - never noticing, never depending on God. I want to live more like the creek - ready to just rest and follow God wherever He leads me. But, i am sure frustrated by my lack of stability! But, the truth is that my instability may be the very key to my creeklikeness! You see, if i was always stable, always had it all figured out, never got ruffled or upset or hurt, i think i would just always choose my way through life and never get off the path and into the creek. Instead, i find myself reeling with every package of bacon that someone takes from my freezer, and as frustrating as it is, i find myself looking to God and His control and soon find myself drifting down the creek of His guidance, noticing and loving and at peace with life!

So, tonight i am glad that i am unstable - can't believe im saying that - but i pray that you will be too, if that's what it takes to help you find the Truth in this life - and to be able to notice God's way in every day.