As with so many of us, I have been involved in a lifelong struggle to trust, rarely seeing the bigger picture. I have learned to lean hard on God through it all, not blaming or correcting him. I no longer have answers for all the questions, but that I trust my Father loves me.......and all his children.
Yes, I've come a long way baby.........to blindly trust, to throw the oar into the river and hang on is scary for us Martha types, at the same time thrilling.........lol
Yes, I've come a long way baby.........to blindly trust, to throw the oar into the river and hang on is scary for us Martha types, at the same time thrilling.........lol
I will spend the rest of my life living out that message .........perhaps I am circling the mountain for the last time. Coming out of the wilderness as a dead man, experientially so......and singing, Lead On, Oh King Eternal...........
This article below, by one I've come to trust especially moved me. I always see the working of the Lord as he writes, especially shining forth in the love for his wife and family. He has this humble vulnerability and transparency as he shares.
This article below, by one I've come to trust especially moved me. I always see the working of the Lord as he writes, especially shining forth in the love for his wife and family. He has this humble vulnerability and transparency as he shares.
by Jack Gray-excerpt from blog on The Pilgrims Path………
Stepping out Blind
“The destination cannot be described. You will know very little till you get there. You will journey blind. But the way leads to the possession of what you have sought for so long in the wrong place.”
The above quotation comes from T.S. Elliot’s play. “The Cocktail Party.” I read it only a few months after Margaret and I had taken the big step out of organized church and, because it struck me strongly as relevant to the journey we had just embarked on, I noted it in my diary. Now, more than twenty years down the track, I see how true it is. Having been for so long and so deeply involved in institutional church life and activities, it was a venture into the unknown.
All we knew was that God had spoken to us more clearly than ever we had experienced before and called us to break camp and move on saying that if we wanted to know Church His way we had first to die to the old.
That is Father’s way often. When He calls He does not always show us what is ahead or fully reveal the destination he intends but He looks for those who will simply and trustingly obey. That was His way with Abraham when God called him to leave homeland and family to go to a land which he would be shown.
Isaiah has a prophecy along similar lines: “I will lead the blind in a way they know not, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things that I will do, and I will not forsake them.” (Isaiah 42:16)
I am still on the journey and can testify to the truth both of these words and those of the T.S. Elliot character. Progressively I am coming into possession of what I had sought for so long in the wrong place, a deepening intimacy with Jesus, a fuller understanding of God’s way of Church, and heart fellowship with fellow-pilgrims along the way.
May this be an encouragement to any of hungry heart who hesitate to leave the old ways and step out in faith with their hands in the grip of the sure guide who will show them where to plant their feet.
Joian and Jack
