5/27/10

Jungle Guide



I found a post recently on another blog. It really encouraged me.
We have been making our way through the jungle for what seems like far too long.
I am tired.
Hearts broken. Hopes for healing crushed. Loved ones lost in the destruction. I'm tired of hoping. I'm tired of wishing it could be different.

I'm weary of the lead backpack we are carrying. I'm ready for some smooth sailing, for some journeying through a sweet easy meadow. I have been straining my neck trying to see the path ahead...hoping to catch a glimpse of a clearing. I want a grief free, stress and mess free life...or at least maybe even a short reprieve at an oasis. I'm tired of lurking dangers, uncertain footing and obscured vision....but this is where we are. It is what it is.

This post reminded me that maybe instead of wishing the jungle away and searching for a clearing.... I should keep my eyes more focused on my guide.

He won't remove the jungle but he will lead us through it.

I've discovered that sometime he even provides little miracles and moments of beauty along the way.

Enjoy the read. Maybe it will encourage you today.
I found a new song too. "Before the morning"
Thankyou God (and other bloggers) for ministering to my weary soul today.

"It’s a Jungle Out There
by Max Lucado

The story is told of a man on an African safari deep in the jungle. The guide before him had a machete and was whacking away the tall weeds and thick underbrush. The traveler, wearied and hot, asked in frustration, “Where are we? Do you know where you are taking me? Where is the path?!” The seasoned guide stopped and looked back at the man and replied, “I am the path.”

We ask the same questions, don’t we? We ask God, “Where are you taking me? Where is the path?” And he, like the guide, doesn’t tell us. Oh, he may give us a hint or two, but that’s all. If he did, would we understand? Would we comprehend our location? No, like the traveler, we are unacquainted with this jungle. So rather than give us an answer, Jesus gives us a far greater gift. He gives us himself.

Does he remove the jungle? No, the vegetation is still thick.

Does he purge the predators? No, danger still lurks.

Jesus doesn’t give hope by changing the jungle; he restores our hope by giving us himself. And he has promised to stay until the very end. “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20 NIV).

We need that reminder. We all need that reminder. For all of us need hope.

Some of you don’t need it right now. Your jungle has become a meadow and your journey a delight. If such is the case, congratulations. But remember???We do not know what tomorrow holds. We do not know where this road will lead. You may be one turn from a cemetery, from a hospital bed, from an empty house. You may be a bend in the road from a jungle.

And though you don’t need your hope restored today, you may tomorrow. And you need to know to whom to turn.

Or perhaps you do need hope today. You know you were not made for this place. You know you are not equipped. You want someone to lead you out."

Come, Jesus, lead us out.

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