To get to my house, you turn off the main road onto a small stretch that splits into two roads, one of which is where I live. What most people don’t realise is that this small section of road is actually only one-way. You can come in on this road, but you cannot really leave the same way.
I see people driving past my house, looking for a way out; they drive up the road, see the no-entry sign, and begin to circle round the estate. Their natural instinct is to keep turning left to get closer to that main road. But the next turning is a dead end. I made the same mistake myself the first time I visited the house. Although you know where the main road is, you are naturally inclined to keep doing what you have always done in a similar setting.
When people come to visit or to deliver something, I always ask, ‘Do you know how to get back out to the main road?’ More often than not, people say, ‘Yes, back the way I came.’ How many people understand that sometimes we must go a different way—that sometimes we must do what doesn’t feel natural—to get out of where we are? Sometimes, going back the way we came means we just end up getting stuck, going back over the same stuff we have just been through.
‘Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.’ (Isaiah 43:19, English Standard Version)
I often watch those lost people driving round my estate and wonder how much time they have wasted by assuming that they already know the way out and don’t need to ask for help. Why not stop wasting time and ask God for the way out? Maybe God wants to do a new thing in your life. Maybe he wants to take you in a different direction than you are used to or that feels natural.
You won’t know until you ask him.
Amber
Amber Burgess is our Office and Events Manager and she is also a Chistian blogger.