Through and Through

One of the delights of hiking is not just wandering in the wilderness, nor checking off another trail on the map, nor a sense of accomplishment, nor survival, but discovering what is all around, the wonders of going through.

We may sense where we are going, but sometimes even that surprises us.  We may be alert to the scenic overlooks or the majesty of an old growth forest, but there is always something new emerging on the trail or even coming together in our thoughts, working our way from point to point and back again.

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. -- poet T. S. Eliot (1943)

Sometimes the degree of difficulty is beyond us. And where is the strength to go forth and not just sit down defeated?

Many friends right now are on unfathomable terrain, enduring cancer treatments, the vestiges of divorce, difficult decisions, the suffocation of loneliness, too loud to think, too quiet to handle, looking for exit doors or an emergency helicopter to rescue them from circumstances. Pray for me, they ask. Pray for this. Pray that God would do that.

We are surrounded by desperation. And most people are really good at disguising it.

While watching the recent Paris-Roubaix women's cycling race, amidst crashes and traveling over cobblestones, the commentator remarked, "Everyone has a story getting through."

The key word here is through.

Sometimes our path is hard.  But always God is here, not just in a difficult moment, but leading us through. Through is one of the most promising words in the Bible, seamlessly woven in the stories there.  Everyone has a story getting through. Even us.

Through means moving from one side out to the other, continuing in time toward completion, a movement to a particular destination.

But in moving through, God calls us to walk differently.  Not in fear, or our own agenda, but in His Presence. Even in this. We find His faithfulness on the most unexpected paths and in the most unlikely places.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you, when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consumer you.  For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior...Because you are precious in My eyes, and honored, and I love you.  Isaiah 43. 2-4

But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Exodus 14. 29

Your way was through the sea, Your path through the great waters, yet Your footprints were unseen. Psalm 77.19 

We may not know where we are going or how, but God is leading us through.  He calls us not to rush through and miss the wonders. He calls us to trust in His slow work, even when in what appears as the long way around. 

And then, our prayers take another path -- praying not for something or someone, or for God to do this or that, but to pray through.  Every moment along the way draws us closer to Him, even the hard stuff, even the unexpected, nothing random or insignificant, nothing God does not redeem.

I may not know what to pray for someone, not knowing what is really on their path either visible or invisible, nor their destination or outcome, or how God is strengthening them, but I can pray them through. 

God takes care of the details on the journey.  He carries us through and even into the though, when we can't quite see our journey. "Trust Me in this. Let Me see you through. Allow yourself to be led."

Through and through.