The Path: Look Where You Are Going
Notes
Transcript
Let us pray…Gracious and loving God, as we come before you this day, the path we have before us does not appear smooth or straight by any stretch of our imaginations. We come with fear, anxiety, sadness, and a whole lot of uncertainty in our hearts, minds, and spirits. As we listen for your soft, still speaking voice this day, we ask you to open us up to your voice, open our hearts to your presence and loving embrace, and most importantly, help us to open our spirits to you, Amen.
Life, it seems, has never been more uncertain than it has in the last few days and what lies before us is certainly unknown. Over the last week, I have had to face more uncertainty than I have in a really long time. I am reminded of the words of a very poignant Psalm this day and I want to share them with you…it is the Psalm I have chosen to represent my life and ministry…this is just a few words of comfort that I draw upon to keep me connected to the only one that can connect us all...
You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
God’s protection is all around us…and I pray these words, from this particular Psalm, will help you in the coming days as we ride the tide of COVID-19 together. It is really important for us to stay connected to one another and to God in this time. The things we hear, the news we watch, and so much about what is going on can drain us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. My prayer these days is for all those who are affected by the virus, whether that be because they have it themselves or if they are isolated from their loved ones because they have contracted the virus, our leaders, and all those who will be making decisions which will impact those they serve. It is an amazing time in which we are currently living, both good and bad. I also pray that each of you is taking heed to the CDC and doing the things that need to be done to protect you and those you love.
As we move down this road together, on a day when we are gathered in a new way, a day when we are learning a new way to be the Church of today, it is really imperative that we take into our hearts the true meaning of the words of the Proverb we have before us. This Proverb holds much for us now as it did for Solomon’s time. I think that to fully comprehend these words today, we need to go back to the beginning of this collection of sayings and look at how Solomon introduces us to the topics that follow and then come back to the piece that we have before us today.
So let’s start at the beginning of this chapter, with verses 1 and 2...
Listen, children, to a father’s instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight; for I give you good precepts: do not forsake my teaching.
I think it is really important to hear these words. Solomon is presenting us with sage advice here. In this one verse, he gives us an introduction into what he is about to cover. I wish we had enough time to cover all the sayings in this Proverb because Solomon takes us through the most important and vital advice I think we have covered thus far. He takes us through the reasons why we need to listen for good wisdom and take heed to the advice of our parents. He also introduces the idea of the path that lays before us and how if we heed and listen, we will not need to fear those who may stand in our way.
Now this may seem like really simple advice and you might feel like zoning out at this point, but let me caution you…that is exactly what Solomon is warning us against at the beginning of these sayings. It’s like walking through the woods…we can keep our eyes down and only focus on what is right in front of our feet and maybe run into a tree or stumble over a rock that we did not see until it was too late. Or we could be walking along, focusing solely upon the goal that we have made for our journey, and stumble over a twig or something small because we were not focused enough on what was immediately in front of us. If you have done any hiking on the trails of our state’s parks, you know exactly what I am talking about. It is really easy to fall into a step pattern and forget to be looking up and down in front of you. Notice that I did not even mention what would happen if you focused your attention solely upon what you had just passed…the point I am trying to make here is that our paths are before us but if we are too focused on the goal, we might miss a beautiful wildflower on our journey, and if we are too focused on the wildflower at our feet, we might miss a danger in front of us.
Solomon also makes an interesting analogy along the journey through these sayings…he equates wisdom to a woman, using feminine pronouns to describe wisdom, like in verses 8-9...
Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a fair garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”
Wisdom is something to be adored and prized. It is the thing that keeps us focused forward and not backward, it is the thing that draws us into that future. There is great beauty in wisdom and there is great joy in using wisdom to guide us in our own journeys. Solomon embraced wisdom, not that he always used it appropriately, but his great wisdom brought him reverence and honor.
So this really leads me into the verses we have before us today...
Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Keep straight the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.
Now, Solomon is using several metaphors in these brief verses to help us understand, most importantly, that our paths lie in front of us, not behind us. They are out there before us. Like I said in my example a few moments ago, these words bring up images of walking in our state parks along trails that may not be clearly defined. Much like our lives, we cannot see clearly where our life is going but if we are not focused on what is before us, we will miss so much along the way.
Solomon is reminding us too that there is more involved in walking the path of wisdom than just our eyes and I am going to step back a few verses to help us understand a little bit more…in verses 21-23, Solomon references our hearts and implores us to be vigilant about keeping our hearts focused on the things that bring glory to God first. And in an echo of what we heard previously, he emphasized that our hearts are the places where we store our wisdom and therefore become the wellspring for all of our life decisions. If our hearts are focused on the things of God, then there can be no room for anything else.
What he mentions after this are parts of the body that will take what we have stored in our hearts and use them to move us forward. Again, this is pretty straightforward and I am not going to belabor the idea that we need to strike a balance between being focused on the immediate and the future goal. That is a delicate balance that each one of us must figure out for ourselves. But I do want to remind you of these words before we end our time this morning...
Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.
Our lives are about journeying forward, not looking over our shoulders. As we move forward in this uncertain time, may God be in your heart and may your heart be focused not so much on the pain of the moment or the frustration of being locked in, but rather focus on what this situation might be trying to teach us about our future, both as individuals and as a church together. I mean, think about it, we just found a new way to be the Church together…what other ways can we learn to be the Church amid this outbreak of COVID-19?
Amen.