Hello! Its been a while since I wrote anything (mainly because I've not had much to say!) so welcome back!
This week I shall be walking to work more than usual, its's (weather
permitting) a pleasant 2 mile walk which normally takes me about 30-40
minutes. The problem with walking to work on a regular basis, is that the walk itself can start to get a bit boring, as the old saying goes 'familiarity breeds contempt' . To avoid this, I've got 6 different routes I can take to get me where I need to be. So depending on how I'm feeling, I can walk through Delph woods, along the river, along the canal, through Hirst Woods, along Baildon Glen (if I want to take the long route), or straight along Coach Road, and within these six routes there are various diversions I can take to stop myself getting bored or if I've got time to explore.
So that's six (at least) different routes all that lead me to the same place, As they say 'All Roads Lead to Rome' (or as the saying in our house goes 'All Roads Lead to Rome - Unless They're in Scarborough').
Talking Heads once sand 'We're on a Road to Nowhere'. The theme tune to Max & Paddy's Road to Nowhere tells us 'Don't Know Where We're Going, Got no way of Knowing Driving on the Road to Nowhere' (to a tune that sounds very similar to the one used in the 1970's series BJ & the Bear (the bear was a monkey not a bear just to add confusion) if you remember it). Whilst I can symapthise with that feeling and have been in situations myself where the way forward hasn't be clear, I'm not sure I fully agree with this philosophy.
Over the course of the last 6 months I've known a number of close friends and family members go through some tough, trying times, be it looking for employment or being under the threat of losing their employment, starting new career paths, family problems & having to deal with ill health. I'm sure at times it felt to them they where on the 'Road to Nowhere'.
But despite the times we feel lost and unsure of where we're going, I don't believe we're ever going nowhere.
I'm not going to get into an argument/discussion about predestination here (for the record I don't agree with predestination theology), but I believe that God has a plan for us, he knows where he wants to be, but he also gives us free will so allows us to make our own way there. Some of the routes we take are harder than others and often have diversions - taking us off in a direction we didn't want to go. The paths seem overgrown and its not easy to see the way ahead & you're not sure you're headed in the right direction and you really don't know where you're going.Yet eventually the path straightens out and the way starts to look clearer.
Just as I have 6 routes to take that lead me from home to work, so in life there are many routes that ultimately lead to the same destination. When things look bleak and unclear, hold on the thought that, although it may not seem like it at the time, you aren't lost, just on a diversion - you're never on the Road to Nowhere, you're always going somewhere.
