When I moved into my apartment, I was told there’s a reservoir near me. I tried to look at the maps, but anyone who knows me knows that I am trash with maps. The directions said it was a 20-minute walk, but I hadn’t yet gotten up the gumption to give getting lost a try.
Well, a few weeks ago, I was supposed to attend my first appointment with a new health care provider (they called me while I was sitting in the waiting room to tell me that my doctor no longer works there).
With extra time on my hands, I rode the bus back toward my apartment. It said its destination was the Reservoir. Shocked, I pulled up my digital map and realized a part of the reservoir came extremely close to my stop, which was approaching quickly.
I climbed off the bus, crossed the road, and found “Gate D.” I realized the directions on the maps were apparently taking me to the main gate on the opposite side of the body of water.
The reservoir was literally 2.5 blocks from my apartment and I had been so afraid of getting lost that I put off finding it for nine months!
Our lives can be the same way.
We can look at our lives and try to figure out the plan, but sometimes we can’t see what comes next.
We can either take a chance and risk getting lost, or we can stay frozen, scared of making a mistake.
I’ve come to a lot of these crossroads. Sometimes there’s been a check in my spirit saying, “No, not that way.” But more often than not, I’ve had to figure it out on my own.
And like the picture at the top, I sometimes have several choices.
All three paths looked beautiful but seemed like they might have their own obstacles (I’m accident prone and am not the most coordinated).
When it comes to the paths in the picture, the good news is that they all lead to the same destination: the reservoir. The bad news is that if you’re looking for the quickest path, you can’t tell until you’ve taken it whether it’s going to be short or long.
I came across that split path when I took the “wrong” entrance to the reservoir the second time I visited. In the pictures that follow, you’ll see that some of the paths had a fence running beside it that kept people from reaching the water. However, that didn’t make the view any less beautiful.
Eventually, those longer, meandering paths did connect with other paths that led to the water. The fences were there for everyone’s protection. If people stepped down the hill, they could trip over huge rocks and get hurt.
Sometimes in life, there is no one single “right” path. Sometimes they all lead to the same destination.
We may feel like there are huge obstacles in our path. We can see our end-goal, but there’s no way to get to that spot directly from where we are. We get frustrated and try to force our way through the obstacles and end up getting hurt.
And sometimes, there’s a better path altogether that leads us away from our original goal. We may see it as the wrong direction, but when we reach the end of the path, we realize we were trying to head somewhere we didn’t belong.
Life has its twists and turns, but we’ll eventually get where we’re supposed to be.
Like, comment, share, and subscribe!!! 💙😊
Brittany Stonestreet 