Pathways

 Copied from Life on the Ledge, 3/02/2012

Every day I get a daily Bible verse in my email. Sometimes it doesn't do a thing for me. At other times I will keep the email in my inbox all day and go back an reread the verse as time permits. Today's verse is one of these. 

Job 23:10-11 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.

I like the Book of Job because it's the one place in the Bible I can identify with someone so strongly that it seems Job and I know one another. In my Bible, I have highlighted several verses in Job. This whole chapter is highlighted because it's one of my favorites in the Bible. In that one chapter, I am Job.

Job 23:3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!

For some time now, I've been lost. Every path I would travel has been cut off. I'm not where I was, and where I am is unfamiliar territory. There are no familiar landmarks, no smooth roadways, and no one to turn to for help. It would appear that my path is to be traveled alone in alien lands. 

Job 23:8-9  Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:  On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:

I just don't know which way to turn. More than once, I have wanted to just sit down in the road and give up. I can't move in any direction at all because I simply don't know which direction to go because I don't know where I am. 

And yet....He knows exactly where I am. 

Job 23:10-11 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.

There's no Google Earth or Google Maps for me to use on this trip. I have only one resource, and too often I forget it. He doesn't forget me. 

Job 23:13-14 But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

He knows where I am. He knows the twist and turns in the roads, the highs and lows. He knows the dangers along each route. He knows the blocks across the paths that lie before me. He sees every alternative route long before I reach it. 

Sometimes when I want to go left, I am forced right. He knows what lies ahead. It is appointed for me. I'm not really lost at all. I just didn't plan the trip.

I do not know why there are dark places in the road, where no light penetrates. I do not know why accidents happen and I am injured or people die. Perhaps it's just the nature of the journey. I know only that there is great comfort in the fact that He knows where I am. And even though it seems I am lost in a strange land, He knows how I got there and where I'm going next.