Imagine this: You are looking down on what looks like a forest from an aerial view. Someone is running on a trail through the thick of some woods. There are tall trees all around them. The trees are bare of leaves. The trail appears like a beaten path from the way you see it. The runner does not notice though. They keep on running. The only sound, aside from the wind, is their own footsteps against the earth. All of a sudden the runner stops. They have come to a fork in the path. You see the runner contemplating which way to go. The runner veers to the right and continues.
You are that runner. The woods are your life. The path you were running down is God’s plan for your life. The fork in the trail is any given decision He puts in your path.
When we come to the fork in the trail, we might want to go to the right. But what if you could not? What if you could see the trail that veers to the right, but it is closed off. There is a sign up that says no trespassing, or dead end. You might become angry. You did not want to go to the left, but you are now being forced to. You want to know why, but you might not ever. Then again, you may.
Sometimes God’s plan does not allow for us to go down a certain path. At the time, it is easy as a human to let our emotions get the best of us. We lean on our own understanding, rather than trusting that His surpasses ours. It is hard to see when you are in the thick of the woods, but we must trust that God has an aerial view. He looks down and only He can see that the path to the left you were forced to take was just a detour. This detour may have kept you out of the way of danger, or sadness, or any other obstacle the devil may have put in your way. In the end, the detour merges with the path we were intended for all along.
The entitlement we feel as humans makes it easy to expect that God’s answer will always be “yes.” You learn first through disappointment and anger that that is not the case, but later with understanding and thankfulness, you see that He may have said “no,” or “not yet.”
Next time you come to a fork in the path of your life, remember the words He said in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
