Leading The Hard Way
One of the things that I have always had to work at overcoming is that “I can’t finish”. I don’t know about you but there are those certain places in my life that have challenged me to the point where I just feel weak and beat up. I have had the privilege in my life to be involved in sports since I was six years old and I have experienced many times where I just wanted to quit. It was almost four years ago that I was able to run in the PF Chang’s Half Marathon. During that race at about mile eleven I just did not want to go on, my legs hurt, my chest hurt, my feet hurt, and all I wanted to do was stop. But I knew that at the finish line was my family and friends, I knew that at the end of the line I was going to be able to rest.
Hebrews 12:12-13 (NLT) So take a new grip with your tired hands and stand firm on your shaky legs. [13] Mark out a straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame, will not stumble and fall but will become strong.
Walking a path. . .
It is amazing to think that when it comes to life that we each have to choose a path on which we will walk. That it can be one that we walk alone or one that we can walk with others. So many people think that by choosing the road that others have walked that it is actually the better way to go. But what if the path that is chosen leads you over a cliff or into the den of a hungry lion. Would you still choose to follow the road that has been chosen by the others.
Proverbs 22:3 (NLT) “A prudent person foresees the danger ahead and takes precautions; the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.”
We need to realize that each and everyone has the opportunity to choose which path we will walk. Last week I read the book, “Principle of the Path” by Andy Stanley. In this book he takes the verse from above and equates it to the many areas of our lives that deal with choosing a path. No matter what we do we make a choice. When we don’t make a choice that is even making a choice. It puts us on a path and every path leads to some where. Where you end up starts with a choice and the choice is which path you will take. The picture at the beginning is one my son took while we were on the beach in San Francisco. In my mind as I looked at this picture and I saw the three sets of footprints as mine, my sons, and my Father’s in Heaven. It is my prayer for my children that as they live this life that they will always be able to see the path that I hoped and prayed that they would be on. I prayed that the path would always be walking with my Father in Heaven. That as a dad I have walked with my children and allowed then to stumble and skip ahead enough to know their own path when it comes to being a follower of Jesus Christ. That as their footsteps continue on and mine do not that they will have the knowledge that the Father of us all will be with them every step of the way.