There’s a basic principle in mountain biking–and life–that I need to relearn once in a while. It’s so basic I tend to overlook it’s vitality. Here it is:
Mountain biking trails are full of ups and downs, small and large obstacles, rocky climbs and drops … and that’s what makes the ride fun! I can get into the most trouble when I face a challenge in the trail by trying to go around it. I go off the marked trail where very small obstructions are hidden in the weeds.
Life is like that. Psalm 37:34 says, “Don’t be impatient for the Lord to act! Travel steadily along his path.” The Bible is full of images of traveling along a path that God has marked out for us. The simple secret of life is to stay on that path. But too often we want to do our own thing, go our own way, follow our own path–and the world encourages us to do this.
God’s path is full of ups and downs, small and large obstacles along the way, rocky climbs and drops … and that’s what makes life fun! But too often we look for shortcuts or what we think in our little minds to be better ways. This impatience with God, not trusting his ways, is what gets us into the most trouble.
Patience takes trust in God. It also takes faith–that God is God and that his timetable is not my timetable. He does not act according to my timing or self-centered wants. He acts according to his own will, and he knows best what to provide and when. The secret is to simply travel steadily along his path. Just stay on the path he has for you and keep going–keeping in step with the Spirit (Gal. 5:25) along the way, not impatiently running ahead of him and not passively laying around as he is moving ahead.
You see, not only did God build this path for your life, he’s riding along it with you, showing you the way. There is no oblstacle along his path that he does not know how to navigate. Just stay on the path!
