SimpleFolk

Follow the Leader

Where are you going in life? How are you going to get there? Why are you going there? Aren’t these questions topping the list of questions we would most like to avoid? If we had to answer these questions truthfully many of us would be forced to respond, “I don’t know, I don’t have a clue, and GET OUT MY FACE!”

Only the most fortunate of us grew up around someone that purposefully made sure we knew that like it or not we all have to select a path. We all have a journey ahead of us, and whether we like it or not, a choice has to be made. In truth, even our refusal or neglect to choose a path is a selection in and of itself. Usually, it is not the one that we would have chose had we gave it some serious thought. Consequently, many of us are presently trying to figure out a way to get off the journey we are currently on and find a new path.

People generally just hit the default button when it is time to making a decision about the path we want to go down. If that is not the case, then the default button has a way of sneaking under our hands, and ten years past before we realize that we had been craftily deceived into selecting a course for life that we never wanted to go down. Our course, though aimless, still is steered, but not by us. Popular treads, friends, family, love interests, drugs, money, and whatever else tells us what direction we should head. They all scream insistently, “Follow me! I know the way!” Unfortunately, in most instances, they do not.

Maybe you have heard the expression, “The blind are leading the blind”. In other words, people are being led by other people that don’t have any more ability or sense then they have themselves. The question is, “Why then are they following?” The answer is, “They are blind! Therefore, they can’t see that the people they are following are blind too” The literal image of this thought is almost humorously ridiculous, but the true reality of this analogy is tragic.

When you don’t know, you are forced to gamble on others that probably don’t know either. If you ever heard someone say that electricity follows the path of least resistance, then I’m here to tell you that generally speaking, people do too. We are always looking for the easy way out, or through, however you want to look at it. The “path less traveled”, that we hear so much about is less traveled because it is a more difficult journey to endure; ironically it is the most rewarding. Even Jesus agreed with this outlook.

He states in Matthew 7:13, “Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it. But the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to life, and few are those who find it.”

The Message Bibles says it this way, “Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.”

You see, usually the best direction to go in is the direction that most people are not going in. The truth of the matter is that we will all follow someone to some degree, but there is one person that we can follow that actually knows the way to go, that person is God. Even if a person is successful in his own journey, it doesn’t necessarily mean he will be successful at directing you in yours. Why follow a blind man or men, when you have an all-knowing God just waiting for you to ask for His help. Ultimately, God is the creator of our life and knows the course we should take. Consider this, if there is a path for our life, then who but God could have mapped it out? If he created the map, then it only makes sense to use His guidance to walk it out.

Yes! Yes! Yes! God’s assistance come with provisions, but be real with yourself; is there any baggage that you can’t take on God’s journey for you worth staying behind just to keep it? Remember the path less traveled is a vigorous one; you are better off just dropping those heavy bags that have no value anyway. After all, have they done anything meaningful for you thus far?

Hey, you tell me!

Posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 1:08 PM. Filed under: Simple Truth Tags: choice, city, decide, decisions, direction, disappointment, facts, folk, follow the leader, following, guidance, journey, life, lost, path, people, popular, real, simple, simplefolk, true, truth, urban, urban religion RSS 2.0 feed.