Daily Trek Inktober 6 #trek

When we lived in Chicago, the pathway of my morning trek was a familiar one by design.  I ran it enough that I knew-- without nary a thought --when to turn, when to switch to the sidewalk, the best place to cross the train tracks, and when I reached the point of “heading back home.”  

Of course, this familiarity came in handy in my early morning mental fog, before my morning cup of coffee kicked in.  Or when I was deep in thought, praying through the day or for friends who are struggling, or simply writing in my head.  It was like an organic internal GPS.  A voice does not tell me where to turn – I just follow the path before me.

One place on that daily trek was an old railway line, converted back in the 1960s into a running/walking/cycling path.  On weekends, the trail was crowded with adults and kids on bicycles, moms and dads with jogging strollers, old friends conversing, and runners training singly or in pairs.  Weekday mornings, commuters rushed toward the train station and cyclists hurried to work, but for the most part, it was just a quiet sanctuary of trees to run through.  

One morning, fog was added to the mix, looking a bit mysterious as if out of a Jane Austen novel, a shady part sometimes a bit creepy on a foggy morning.  Once running on this section, looking for where the next street crosses at the train station, I thought:  What if I enter this path someday and the train station is not at the end?  What if I come out somewhere else…..or five years later in my life?  How will things be different?  How will I be different?

We are all trekking on paths designed by God for His Kingdom and for our good.  We cannot know what turns the paths will take or if indeed the expected train station will be at the end, but we can be assured of a few things:  God is with us to provide strength for the journey, wisdom to handle what we encounter on the way, grace to deal with those we meet, and His purposes manifest in our lives.  It will all make sense someday.  

Five years from now—or today – may not be what we planned, but it is firmly lodged in His plans.  We have only to run with Him through it.  And perhaps, be surprised at the next intersection where He has brought us.  We may have trekked further than we thought, or landed at a destination not even on our radar.