TRUST THE NARROW, UNBEATEN PATH
When I was younger I went hiking up Golden Ears Mountain. Several years earlier I went with my school and there was a nice rope bridge that crossed the waterfalls to keep you on the trail up the top of the mountain. The path that led to the bridge was wide, covered in nice bark mulch, very easy and flat.
Well away I went with my 50 pound pack heading up this easy path to the falls to cross the bridge. When I got there the bridge was no longer there. I turned back down the path to head home when I noticed this tiny little opening in the bush with an orange tag marking it. I decided to head through this overgrown, blackberry infested sort of path.
I got cut up on the blackberry thorns and there came a place still marked by the tags that wanted me to scale these rocks and walk along a very narrow ledge with this huge pack on my back and nothing to hold onto. I did, and a few minutes later I emerged at the river now above the falls in this beautiful valley with gorgeous beaches. The river was easy to cross here over the rocks, and the path up the mountain continued on the other side.
Well, it was so beautiful there, I decided to camp there before heading up the next day. The wide path led nowhere, there was no reward at the end, but this other one that obviously very few had trod led to amazing rewards.
The Christian life is travelling the road less travelled, and everything in us will say, let’s just stay on the beaten path, it’s easier and more familiar. But there’s nothing at the end of it.
In fact even in your mind there are beaten paths and until you practice doing and thinking different things you will impulsively travel the worn paths until you make new ones. The point is, if you want God’s rewards, including eternal life, you have to trust the narrow, unbeaten path. When we ask, seek, and knock, this is the path we will be led to. You may be bleeding, terrified, and uncertain at times along the way, but do you believe the promise is worth it?