I like known ways. Reliable pathways. But God often wants to show us a pathway no one knew was there! Ready to be surprised?
Something had to change because it felt like I had been walking the same pathway in a perpetual rutted circle.
Around and around, digging a deeper hole.
I had become a slave to this rutted route.
And it filled me with despair.
Despair is what happens when there is a lack of new creation. When things are just are what they are and there is a deep sense of impotence that there is nothing you can do about it. Rob Bell
Despair is a spiritual condition. Despair is when you fall under the belief and conviction that tomorrow will simply be a repeat of today. Rob Bell
If you have ever been in that rutted road of despair, often a groan arises.
A groan about the slavery you’re in.
A groan about the dark valley you’re going through.
Groaning for a new pathway to be seen.
You pray for the opening of your eyes to see paths you didn’t even know existed.
Psalm 77 joined me on the pathway a few days ago.
A dark valley pathway
The Psalmist reflects this groaning, prayer-filled pathway in the story of the people of Israel and the slavery experienced in Egypt.
I cry out to God; yes, I shout.
Oh, that God would listen to me!
2 When I was in deep trouble,
I searched for the Lord.
All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven,
but my soul was not comforted.
3 I think of God, and I moan,
overwhelmed with longing for his help. Interlude
4 You don’t let me sleep.
I am too distressed even to pray!
5 I think of the good old days,
long since ended,
6 when my nights were filled with joyful songs.
I search my soul and ponder the difference now.
7 Has the Lord rejected me forever?
Will he never again be kind to me?
8 Is his unfailing love gone forever?
Have his promises permanently failed?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he slammed the door on his compassion? Interlude
10 And I said, “This is my fate;
the Most High has turned his hand against me.”
11 But then I recall all you have done, O Lord;
I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.
12 They are constantly in my thoughts.
I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.
13 O God, your ways are holy.
Is there any god as mighty as you?
14 You are the God of great wonders!
You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.
15 By your strong arm, you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Interlude
16 When the Red Sea saw you, O God,
its waters looked and trembled!
The sea quaked to its very depths.
17 The clouds poured down rain;
the thunder rumbled in the sky.
Your arrows of lightning flashed.
18 Your thunder roared from the whirlwind;
the lightning lit up the world!
The earth trembled and shook.
19 Your road led through the sea,
your pathway through the mighty waters—
a pathway no one knew was there!
20 You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep,
with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds. Psalm 77
A pathway no one knew was there!
For the people of Israel, they needed a pathway where seemingly, in their groan, none existed.
God had brought them to the edge of the Red Sea and the Egyptian army was chasing hard.
No pathway seemingly existed, and yet, in God’s economy there was one.
A pathway no one knew was there.
A pathway that surprised and filled them with awe and wonder.
Read the story in Exodus 14
But your footprints were not to be found
Many of the paths we walk on are seen because others have walked on them. Thousands of feet have compounded the path into existence.
But sometimes the path is completely new. A pioneer’s path.
In the original Hebrew, the Psalmist would have wrote ‘To not know the heel, footprint, hind part’
The footprints weren’t seen. They were not to be found. They were unknown.
And yet, previous providential footprints had been seen.
The Psalmist rehearses these.
But then I recall all you have done, O Lord;
I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.
They are constantly in my thoughts.
I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.
What are you rehearsing?
One of the most helpful concepts I have learned over the years is that the brain and all its neural pathways take the shape of that which the mind rests on.
The pathway of your focus creates physical pathways in the brain.
Rehearsing them over and over again strengthens them until we become, for the better or for the worse, seemingly and unknowingly enslaved to them.
An often rehearsed phrase for me is this.
What I focus on gets me.
Focus on the negatives/ challenges will always take me down.
Focus on the positive/good things will always give me hope.
This is not some sort of disconnected from reality, ‘postive thinking’, magic wand.
This is a full and deep awareness of the muck you’re in, but then a focus, like the Psalmist, on the Almighty.
God offers the invitation to new pathways. Ones we didn’t even know existed.
The psalmist could keep rehearsing over and over again the trauma of their life, verses 1-10.
But then a ‘but’ comes in. A door swings on a small hinge. An inflection point.
‘But then I recall’
The mind of the Psalmist swings to the stories of God’s providence.
Finding that new pathway
1. Groan
Yes, I said groan. Not a popular message in today’s culture, but there is a time to groan and lament.
To bear up in prayer the weight of living in a fallen and fractured world.
To long for relief of the slavery to the struggle of the now. ‘Get me out of Egypt’ might be the prayer God is waiting to hear.
2. Rehearse the goodness
Go back over the providential ways God has been with you. Go over the journals.
Reflect on the pathways God has opened to you where you thought there were none.
3. Have an attitude of hopeful awareness
As Dietrich Bonhoffer would say, ‘Be aware, be watchful, wait just another short moment. Wait and something quite new will break over you: God will come.’ (full quote below)
4. Be open to the different
This is a pathway no one knew was there. So be open to something different from what your mind was presenting to you as the only option.
5. Take the steps
Pathways need to be walked on, and they invite a first tentative step. Take a millimetre step. Small and highly achievable.
New pathway
New pathway
I need a new pathway
One that no one knew was there
Waves part before me
Dry land upon to kneel
I need a new pathway
A way for them to come back home
I sit and watch down the path
Waiting for those who roam
I need a new pathway
One that no one knew was there
I blow across the waters
Dry land does appear
I open my eyes to watch
I quiet my heart to wait
Open up the watered sea
Trusting your hand is great
I dip my toes into the tide
See water slip away
A new pathway does appear
Fills me with holy fear
What if in the way I have travelled
I have missed so many clues
To pathways you have created
Known only to you
I take this new moment
Watching for a path
Hopeful anticipation
Good shepherds rod and staff
Quotes to consider
- … I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And (God) led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East. Minnie Louise Haskins - Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin -
Look up, you whose gaze is fixed on this earth, who are spellbound by the little events and changes on the face of the earth.
Look up to these words, you who have turned away from heaven disappointed.
Look up, you whose eyes are heavy with tears and who are heavy and who are crying over the fact that the earth has gracelessly torn us away.
Look up, you who, burdened with guilt, cannot lift your eyes.
Look up, your redemption is drawing near. something different from what you see daily will happen.
Just be aware, be watchful, wait just another short moment.
Wait and something quite new will break over you: God will come.
God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas
Questions to answer
- Where have you experienced a ‘pathway no one knew was there?’
- We can become enslaved to deeply rutted thinking patterns. What would it be like to pray, ‘Get me out of here’?
- An openness to new pathways is required to see them appear. How open are you to God giving you something completely different to what you were expecting? Think of Jesus turning water into wine.
Formation exercise
- Groan. Sit in the groan. Write it out like the Psalmist did. Then write the word ‘BUT’. Look to the providence of God in your life. Ask God for a new pathway no one knew was there.
Further reading
Barry Pearman
Photo by Lizgrin F on Unsplash
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