CWE Pre Camp Devos-#9 The Subway Ride

Proverbs 3:5-6

“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart,

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge Him,

and He will MAKE YOUR PATHS STRAIGHT.”

(or “HE SHALL DIRECT YOUR PATHS” – NKJV)

“THE SUBWAY RIDE”

I like to travel, always have.  I like seeing new places and experiencing new cultures.  When I visit other places I don’t like to do the “tourist bit.”  I generally don’t do bus tours with a guide speaking on a portable sound system that no one can understand.  I don’t like someone else to tell me what I should go see and what I shouldn’t.  Instead, I like to see the place I am visiting as if I lived there.  I like to experience, when possible, the locale as those who live there do.  I like more of an adventure than an orchestrated experience.  I like to eat where the locals eat, shop where they shop, and travel as they travel.  That is why, whenever I am in one of my favorite cities in the world, New York, I always travel by subway.  My wife and I have a “thing “ about New York.  We first visited this amazing city when we were so poor all we could afford was a cheap flight in the middle of the night on a discounted, now defunct airline called People’s Express.  We stayed in a fairly dilapidated old hotel, ate in local dives, saw a couple of Broadway Shows using half-price tickets and traveled everywhere the way most New Yorkers travel…on foot, on the bus, or by the subway.  Since that first experience, my wife and I have visited New York probably 25 times.  Our accommodations budget has increased slightly, but we still eat at local eateries and we still invariably travel by subway. 

My daughter, Angela, moved to New York and lived on the Upper West Side for about a year (great neighborhood by the way).  Since she is very competitive, whenever we go to New York it invariably turns into a competition between us about who knows the most about New York, how to get around, where to go, and what to do. (Unfortunately, if I have to admit it, she probably is more of a New Yorker than me.)  Be that as it may, I take great pride in the fact that I do not have to use a subway map when I go to New York.  I know where the Red Line goes, which of the trains are express and which are local, which go cross town, the quickest way to Brooklyn (the Brooklyn Tabernacle is a must for a Sunday morning worship experience), and where to get off the Blue line to go to one of the greatest little bakeries in the world (The Magnolia Bakery).  I will tell you a secret if you let me: they are known for their cupcakes but their banana pudding is way better. 

And so it was that Susan and I were in New York with two of our staff members, Gene Monk and Dave Atkins, for a camping convention.  On a free Saturday afternoon we decided to go see the site of the World Trade Center and its aftermath.  No problem.  From our hotel we took the purple line across to 42^nd street, hopped on the Red line and got off at the WTC station.  Piece of cake.  However, as we emerged from the underground tunnel onto the busy street, I briefly hesitated.  “Was it to the right or the left?” I asked myself.  Now at that exact moment, the easiest and smartest thing to do would have been to ask one of the hundreds of locals walking by me on the side walk, but there was absolutely no way on this earth I was going to do that.  I was, after all, a New York expert.  I knew where I was going. So, shaking off the brief moment of doubt, and putting firmly in the back of my mind the logical thought that I should perhaps ask someone just to be sure, I struck off to the left.  After we had walked about a half mile, Susan asked me if I was certain where I was going.  Wrong question…really, really, wrong question.  Smoke coming out of my ears, I boldly declared I knew exactly where I was going and quickened my pace, continuing to walk on. 

How often do we do that in our own lives?  How often do we determine our own path with absolutely no consultation with the one and only God of the universe?  How often do we hear the soft, still voice of the Holy Spirit of God telling us to do one thing, but boldly strike out on our own with blatant disregard for the will of God?  Today’s scripture is the last phrase in this powerful passage from Proverbs that we have now been looking at for almost two weeks.  It is the conclusion, the result, the promise, the prize of all that has come before it.  Today’s passage tells us that if and when we place our complete faith and trust in Jesus as Lord, He and He alone will DIRECT OUR PATHS.  He and He alone will wrap us in His arms and insure that the directions, twists, and turns of life all have a purpose: His purpose.  He tells us today that He will guide us to where He wants us to be.  He doesn’t tell us that it will always be easy.  Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that when God is in control our life is easier.  HA!!!!  Hardly; straight paths are sometimes steep paths.  Straight paths are sometimes fraught with pot holes.  Straight paths may have challenges all along the way.  But when our faith and trust are in God, each of these paths is His direction and according to His purpose. 

You have a choice to make in life: follow the path of God’s direction or follow your own.  His path has purpose and fulfillment as its ultimate destiny.  Your path has, at its best, short term enjoyment and at its worst, destroyed relationships, emptiness, and misery.  God loves you.  He has brought you to camp this summer.  He has a plan for you for this summer and for the rest of your life.  Trust His plan.  Follow His path and you are in for the adventure of a lifetime.  Trust yourself.  Follow your own path and you are nothing but a nameless tourist on one of those tour buses I detest who see the surface but never experience the adventure.  HE SHALL DIRECT YOUR PATHS…all of them.

As for me and my merry band of tourists looking for the World Trade Center, I finally gave in after walking a mile to the south of the station, asked for directions and was pointed back in the exact direction from where we had originated.  After trudging over a mile back, we finally reached the subway station from where we had started our walk.  We walked 50 feet past it in the other direction and there we were, the site of the World Trade Center.  Let me know if you ever need my guide services when you are in the Big Apple.  I work cheap.