Welcome to a 4th installation of my meandering thoughts and analogies! For those of you who are stumbling across this for the 1st time, the premise is simple. As I take my 3 year-old daughter out for a daily ride on her bike, I hear myself repeating the same few phrases. As I have reflected on these, I have realised that there are some truths within each that link directly to my life and walk with Jesus, and hope and pray you get some encouragement too and maybe a new glimpse of God, from a fresh perspective.
“Look where you want to go!”
I love that Daisy is interested in her surroundings. The issue here is that as she turns her head, she turns the handlebars as well. As such, she can end up, accidentally steering all over the place as different things catch her eye. We have ended up in hedges, bumping into walls, bouncing over grass and…occasionally, veering towards the road.
Because of this, I have to say to her (several times per trip) “Look where you want to go!” The things that draw our eye and our attention can so often set our direction.
As I ponder this, in light of my own life and situation, I can’t help but think this applies to me as well. I wonder if, in the moments when I pause and listen, I might hear God saying to me, “Look where you want to go!”
How often am I distracted and thereby drawn off course, and then I pause to consider, I realise that this isn’t the direction I want anyway. As a Christian I say that I want to follow Christ and his path, and so to do that, I need to keep my focus on that! I need to look where I want to go…but it can be so difficult. I can see all sorts of other things that look tempting, or interesting. Nothing wrong with those things, until they start to pull me off my path…the plan God has for me…which I know, ultimately, is the best way to walk – the best direction of travel!
And like Daisy, heading toward the road, there is a risk that some of these things take me toward danger. It might not be that the thing I am looking at is bad, but just that heading toward it the wrong way or at the wrong time could end up causing me harm.
So what do we do? What does Daisy do (or at least, what should she do)? She listens to the voice of a loving father who encourages her over and over, to keep her eyes fixed on the path she is on, so that no harm will come to her, so she can enjoy the journey and can come home safely.
As Isaiah wrote (Isaiah 30:21), echoing the voice of God,
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”