A Pathway No one Knew was There!

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 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.

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. It was 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 thousands of feet have compounded the route into existence. But sometimes the path is completely new—a pioneer’s path.

In the original Hebrew, the Psalmist would have written, ‘To not know the heel, footprint, hind part.’ The footprints weren’t seen; they were unknown. And yet, previous providential footprints had been seen.

The Psalmist rehearses these:

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 better or worse, enslaved to them.

An often rehearsed phrase for me is this:

This is not some sort of disconnected reality or a “positive 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 the trauma of their life over and over (verses 1-10). But then a “but” comes in. A door swings on a small hinge. An inflection point:

The mind of the Psalmist swings to the stories of God’s providence.

Finding that new pathway

1. Groan: Yes, groan. There is a time to groan and lament—to bear up in prayer the weight of living in a fallen, fractured world. Longing for relief from 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 your journals and reflect on the pathways God opened when you thought there were none.
3. Have an attitude of hopeful awareness: As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, ‘Be aware, be watchful, wait just another short moment. Wait and something quite new will break over you: God will come.’
4. Be open to the different: This is a pathway no one knew was there. Be open to something different from what your mind presents as the only option.
5. Take the steps: Pathways need to be walked on, and they invite a tentative first step. Take a millimetre step—small and highly achievable.

New pathway

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… Just be aware, be watchful, wait just another short moment. Wait and something quite new will break over you: God will come.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas

Questions to answer

1. Where have you experienced a ‘pathway no one knew was there?’
2. We can become enslaved to deeply rutted thinking patterns. What would it be like to pray, ‘Get me out of here’?
3. 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

• How Your Rehearsal Can Change Your Mind
• LOFO: Look Out For Opportunities
• You Prepare a Table Before Me

Barry Pearman

Photo by Lizgrin F on Unsplash